Pruning Our Hearts

Charles Spurgeon when preaching on Psalm 131said this, “Psalm 131is one of the shortest psalms to read but one of the longest to learn.” This is a ‘slam that calls us to resist the temptation to be prideful, it calls us to push against our arrogant ambitions. This is hard as it is in direct contrast to what the world teaches. This psalm also warns us against living a life of dependence, a life that seeks no responsibility and rely on others to solve our problems. Whole the world calls for us to seek the things of this world and to achieve and gain them by any means necessary, this psalm calls us to be humble and submit all to God. It calls us to move forward on faith, taking responsibility for our actions and our lives. To walk with God is to be perpetually moving forward in faith, to be seeking God.as will and God’s timing on all that we do.

Psalm 131

O LORD, my heart is not lifted up;

my eyes are not raised too high;

I do not occupy myself with things

too great and too marvelous for me.

2 But I have calmed and quieted my soul,

like a weaned child with its mother;

like a weaned child is my soul within me.

3 O Israel, hope in the LORD

from this time forth and forevermore.

I spent much of my teenage years in Washington State, a state known for growing some of the best apples in the world. If you were to walk by an orchard as they were pruning the trees you might wonder how these trees will ever produce fruit. But it is this pruning to the branches that strengthens the trees and then allows them to produce more fruit then if they were to be left on their own. Jesus makes this statement, “I am the true vine and my Father the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” There are things in our lives that need to be remove and thing that need to be pruned. Just because we are Christian, and we go to church on Sunday and read our bibles does not mean we are immune to the effects of living in this world, it does not mean that we are not tempted and fall back into sin. To keep us moving forward God will do some routine maintenance on our lives, so that we remain on the right path. We need to also do some maintenance and remove and prune those things that keep us from focusing on what is of God and not that which is of man.

“O Lord my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised to high; I do not occupy myself with things to great and to marvelous for me.”

One of the most damaging things that we need to remove from our lives is prideful ambition. Ambition when focused on the right thing is to be celebrated, ambition that is fueled by pure human desire, needs to be pruned. Words in the Bible are very easy to read, it is written in plain language, the hard part comes when we apply those words to our lives. It is hard for two main reasons. First our own sinful hearts and fleshly desires are often diametrically opposed to what God instructs us to do. Second the world e live in is opposed to the truth and will of God. We live in a world filled with stumbling blocks in our walk with God. Prideful selfish desires and ambitions are seen as good qualities in a world that seeks material wealth and popularity, but for the person who desires to walk with God they are road blocks and must be pruned on a daily basis, so that we can produce the good fruit that is sweet and pleasing to God.

Western culture encourages unbridled, prideful ambition, they celebrate those that have reached the top no matter the cost and celebrate them as examples of how to succeed. They promote the idea that we have the power and the right to use any means necessary to reach our goals. This prideful ambition often leaves compassion and empathy behind, as people step over and on whoever they need to in their quest for wealth and fame. They claim all the glory for themselves setting aside any moral standard and any honor to God. Their hearts become hardened, and they see themselves as righteous and free.

This is a condition that predates man. In the book of Revelation, we learn of Satan’s fall from heaven. Satan saw himself as God’s equal, as he become full of prideful ambition, convincing himself that he was equal to God in all ways. When he was cast out, he used that same prideful ambition to initiate the fall of man, into sin. Telling Adam and Eve they could be in equal footing with God if they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It was their desires to be like God that lead to sin, and death being released upon the world. This same curse, results in the same results every day in lives of many.