The HEART of things

I had written a post called Guard the tongue, in which I said, when a person keeps using bad words, while professing to be a Christian, there is ‘something wrong with that picture’. A couple comments mentioned it being the heart. And, I certainly agree.

The heart is the central part of our being, both spiritual and the human life. When the heart stops, we cease to be alive. But, while that heart is working within us, it is the seat of our conscience ( Romans 2:15). If we are truly Christians, the conscience should make it known to us when we disobey the laws of God. There is a prick within the spirit that lets you know you are wrong.

The heart is where the process of salvation begins. We either answer the wooing of the Holy Spirit and accept the free gift of Grace through faith, or we harden our hearts to the calling. (Psalms 95:8) When we harden our heart, we don’t see all sin as sin; we appear prideful and conceited, and we have little concern for the Word of God. We tend to forego the convictions of sin, never want to be told we are in the wrong, so we stay ignorant of God’s Word. We have a sinful nature and therefore, we are deemed as wicked. And, so the heart must be regenerated before we can willingly obey the Lord. (Ezek. 36:26; 11:19; Ps. 51:10-14)

A question was brought up: Can we habitually sin and serve God? I said I did not believe so. We are called ‘a new creature’ (II Corn 5:17) in Christ, when we are saved. We begin the process of regeneration at that moment. We don’t become perfect in an instance; in fact, we won’t be perfect until we gain our entrance into heaven and put on those white robes. But, we begin a change in our lives, our attitudes change, our countenance changes, and people can and should see the difference in us. We start to realize certain things are sin, and we work to correct those problems in our life. If we continue to do things that we realize are in, then we are habitually sinning, going against the commandments of God, and I don’t think we can be in right standing with Him.

I am not the judge nor jury that will determine an entrance into that heavenly gate, thank the Lord. But, I would not want to chance missing out on reaching heaven, based on ‘my thinking’ of right or wrong, or anyone elses’, for that matter. . I believe we need to be sure of our standing with God, through reading and meditating on His Word, and asking the Holy Spirit for enlightment as to the meaning of the Word. The Word tells us to ‘work out your own salvation with fear and trembling’. (Phillipians 2:12).

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