Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. {Proverbs 4:23}
No one can rule their heart without the help of the Lord. It will rule you first before you can have the power to rule it. I’m sure you’ve seen the saying, “Follow your heart, it knows the way.” Well the problem with that is, if it’s not directed by God it can lead us to destruction. The Bible tells us,
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? {Jeremiah 17:9}
The only one that can know the depths of our hearts is the Lord. No one else can know their heart except God. This is what God told Prophet Jeremiah. He said,
I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. {Jeremiah 17:10}
How many times have our hearts led us to do stupid stuff that we’re ashamed of later? How many times have we fallen in love with a person or a friend, and we were sure that it was the right friend or the right partner for us, and it ends up being so wrong? We’ve even made decisions with our studies in college so we can get a career we were sure we would love, and it ends up making us so miserable. So you see, we can’t always trust our hearts to lead us to the right way. We don’t really know the right way at all, because we don’t know the ending from the beginning. Only God does. Proverbs tells us to watch our hearts, to guard it, because it determines the course of our lives.
What we feed our hearts is very important. Whatever we entertain in this life is what is going to enter our hearts. Once a seed is planted in our hearts, it will bear fruits that will lead to actions and events in our lives that are of our own making. It could either lead us to the right path that will bring us wonderful rewards later, or it can lead us to destruction. It’s all up to us what we allow to enter into our hearts. We cry and weep later when things go wrong, but really it’s the result of things we’ve entertained in this life and what we wanted to do. We sometimes like to blame our faulty decision making on others when it fails, but it was us that allowed it. It was us that watered it and it was us that harvested the actions we allowed to enter into our hearts.
No one really has the power over their hearts except the Lord. Only the Lord can help us overcome the wicked thoughts and desires that can end up entering into our hearts. We live in a world today where the things that were shunned ages ago have become acceptable. Just because it is acceptable in our society today doesn’t mean it’s now good in God’s eyes. But how will we know this? How will we know what is good and right in the sight of God when these things have become “normal” now? We talk to Him. We come to Him and we say this prayer to Him,
Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. {Psalm 139:23-24}
We come to the Lord and we bring our hearts to Him. We tell Him to search it, to know it, and to show us and lead us to the right paths with Him. At the end of the day and when this life is over, the most important opinion in this universe is God’s. It’s not what the world thinks, or what our favorite TV host thinks, or what our favorite celebrity thinks. It’s what God thinks. Nothing else is going to matter in the end but what God thinks. Our favorite TV host, or our favorite singer or actor or whoever it is we idolized in this world, is not going to stand beside us to defend us before the Judgment seat of Christ. There will only be us, and our heart alone before God. No one else will speak for us, but just us alone. God has told Prophet Jeremiah He judges the heart. He will give to us our rewards according to our works. This is why King David said that prayer, “Search me oh God and know my heart,” because no one else really understands the heart of man except the Lord. No one can really search it and know it except God.
Knowing how to rule our hearts is so important in our day and age. Where things sinful and ungodly have become good and attractive, and where things punishable in times’ past are now rewarded, how will we ever save ourselves and be with God forever who is pure and holy and righteous? Apostle Peter even in his day and age preached that they should turn away from their wicked and untoward generation, when thousands of people were turning to the Lord then. How are we going to save ourselves today if we don’t bring our hearts to the Lord? Everywhere we turn today, more and more the love of many have waxed cold away from God. People don’t want anything to do with God anymore or in following His word. How then are we going to keep ourselves pure and unspotted from this world if we don’t bring our hearts to Him and have Him examine it?
Apostle Paul wrote this to the people in Philippians,
Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. {Philippians 2:12}
If we don’t bring our hearts to the Lord and have Him examine it, we have no chance at all to save ourselves from this untoward generation. It is so important to rule our hearts with the help of the Lord, because alone we cannot do it. We do not have enough power to rule our own hearts. It will rule us first before we can rule it. There is nothing to be afraid of in coming to the Lord and opening up our hearts to Him, because He loves us so much and died to save us. This is the reason why He came and died for us, so that He can save us from our sinful nature, from our hearts. Our heart, whether we like to accept it or not, is deceitful and desperately wicked at times. Only God can know it, and change it. Only Jesus Christ can know our hearts and save us from it. We don’t always know the answer. We don’t always know the way. Jesus tells us,
“I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” {John 14:6}
Only Jesus knows the way to life everlasting. Only Jesus knows the way to God. Only the Lord can save us. That’s why it’s imperative that we rule our heart by bringing it to the Lord.
Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the LORD pondereth the hearts. {Proverbs 21:2}
If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? and shall not he render to every man according to his works? {Proverbs 24:12}
Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name. {Malachi 3:16}
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. {Revelation 20:12}
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And 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. {Romans 12:1-2}
Prayer
Lord Jesus, my hope is in You. You are my life. Without You I am nothing. I need to abide in You daily, pick up my cross and follow You.
Please, Father, I pray for Your grace and love upon my soul today. I pray for Your mercy and forgiveness to wash over my soul. Know my heart Lord. Try me and know me, and see if there is any evil way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting with You. I want Your way Father. I want Your will to be done upon my life. Please Jesus, be gracious upon my soul and save me. Forgive me for any wicked thoughts or desires in my heart that are leading me to go against Your will. Help me to watch my heart and the thoughts I entertain daily. Please direct it to glorify Your name on this earth. Cleanse me and make me pure and holy before You today, Father, I pray. In Your most wonderful and precious name, Jesus. Thank You, Father. Amen.
#repost5/2019
