MATTERS OF THE HEART
Prov 4:23
2 Chr 25:1-2
What you feed your heart will ultimately determine who you become. Until you get it right in the heart nothing has happened to you yet. When the chips are down in your life, it is what you have in your heart that emerges and your life begins to give expression to. Everything about your life starts with the state of your heart and that is why the condition of your heart is very critical to God.
If you look at the beatitudes in Matt 5, you will realize that its main focus is the state of your heart. For the first time we are seeing God telling us that your blessedness was not determined by what you did but by the way you regarded situations. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
Then the scriptures now tells us some things in verse 27 ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say unto you that whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her in his heart. The truth is that God fully appreciate is that once the matter is settled in your heart, it is only a matter of time and it will manifest. Accordingly sin in the sight of God leaves the arena of the action and goes to the place of the thought and the state of the heart.
If you regard iniquity in your heart, the Lord will not answer your prayer. Ps 66:18. Ps 141:4 Incline not your heart to any evil thing, to practice evil works with men that work iniquity.
Ezekiel 36:22-38 is talking of the future restoration of the people of God. You will see that verse 26 specifically says a new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you shall keep my commandments and do them.
This means that one of the core operations of the Holy Spirit is to make the heart more amenable and responsive to the word of God. A man of God said something recently that success is not about skills but about having the heart to venture. If you get it right in the heart you can achieve great things in your life. It is all a matter of the heart. Too many of us assess people from the context of what we see at every point in time. The bible tells us to know no man after the flesh. 2 Cor 5:16. Do not be too much in a hurry to conclude about me. There is more about me that what you are seeing right now, so do not be in a hurry to judge me.
Rom 12:2 Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. This implies that change really starts in your life with your heart. Each time we see turbulence and confrontation in your life, the real target of the devil is your heart. Once he gets there, he is in full control of your life. The heart is where the crux of the matter is in your life.
While men look at the acts, God looks at the heart. I may not always be right on what I do, but God knows that my heart is right. The text in 2 Chr 25 talks about Amaziah that he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart. If it was right in the sight of God it means that any man who was looking at him will assume that he was doing the right thing. In fact he would be a point of reference and be used as an example to many. But the bible said it was not with a perfect heart, which made everything that he was doing to be worthless. This means that God places more value with the condition of your heart than with your action. That is why you see some people that you assume are on fire for God because they know the acts, and they are not blessed and you keep wondering what is happening. Sometimes it may just be that the heart is not right.
As long as your heart is right with God, even when you walk in error, God is quick to overlook it. That is why God was always so quick to forgive David because in most times the sin was not conceived in the heart. Even his sin with Bathsheba was just a product of momentary irrationality. The reason was that God looked at David and saw him as a man whose heart was right with God. That was what Samuel told Saul in 1 Sam 13:14, that God had found someone after his heart. God took time to observe him as a young man and told his prophet Samuel that he has found someone after his heart, or whose heart is right with him. Any one of the sons of Jesse was qualified to be anointed king of Israel. They were the tenth generation of the tribe of Judah which brought to an end the curse of the sin of Judah when he slept with his daughter in law. You can trace the family lineage in 1 Chr 2:3-15. Jesse had eight sons, but only seven are named in the bible. In 1Sam 16:6 when Eliab the first son was presented to Samuel, he said, surely this is the Lord's anointed. But God told him look not at the countenance or the height of his stature, because I have refused him. This means that God had considered him and found him not worthy. The God begins to tell us later the basis of his consideration. He said for the Lord sees not as man sees. For man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. Same with Abinadab and Shammah, and the rest of the other seven sons of Jesse. The thing that qualified David was the state of his heart.
David gave us an insight into the state of his heart in the Psalms such as Ps 28:7 The Lord is my strength and my shield, my heart trusted in him and I am helped. Therefore my heart greatly rejoices and with my song I will praise him.
Ps 57:7 My heart is fixed. O God my heart is fixed. I will sing and give praise.
Ps 86:11 Teach me thy way O Lord. I will walk in thy truth. Unite my heart to fear thy name. Ps 119:10 With my whole heart have I sought thee. O let me not wander from thy commandment.
11 Thy word have I hid in my heart that I may not sin against thee.
The writer of the book of proverbs tells us the type of heart that God desires that we should all have. Prov 3:4-6 it starts by telling us that we will find favour and good understanding in the sight of God. It now begins to tell us how we can get there in verse 5 when it says, trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths.
It is a heart that is completely yielded to God and that is constantly yearning for Him. 2 Chr 16:9 For the eyes of the Lord runs to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards him.
God had this to say about Asa in 2 Chr 15:17 the high places were not taken away out of Israel in his reign, nevertheless the heart of Asa was perfect all his days.
God said concerning David's desire to build him a temple in 2 Chr 6:8 Forasmuch as it was in thine heart to build a house for my name, thou didst well.
It is pertinent that you must guard your heart with all diligence. There is an invasion by the world to take over your heart. This takes place in the office, school, place of business and the entire environment.
The whole essence of salvation is for God to capture your heart and it becomes absolutely yielded to God. Rom 10:9 If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
