A Soft Heart part 1
I just preached this last night, but I think it's important so I'm going to spend this Rant series really digging in and exploring it. But, as I often do, I'm going to give away the punch line first. Ready? Ok. Proverbs 4:23 in the NLT reads, "Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life." But here's where the upside down, backwards Kingdom economy comes into play: In order to guard your heart you don't close it down... you open it up! But first things first. Your heart determines the course of you life. The King James says, "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." Yesterday's sermon came from me asking Logan what I should preach about regarding love. He said, "The heart, of course!" Out of the mouth of babes, right? And catch this--if the heart is all about love, and out of it are the issues of life... then the issue (singular) of life is love! That's why the heart is so important. That's why it's so vital that we keep it. That we guard it. Let me say it another way, "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God" (Matthew 5:8). But, as always, this isn't a formula. This isn't an "if-then" statement. It's not, "If you become pure in heart, then you'll see God." As if you could somehow make your heart pure on your own. No, this is Jesus telling us HOW to do something. In this case, how to see God. We see Him with a pure heart. Because love flows out of a pure heart... and God is love. So here's where it gets magnificent. The cry before the cross, "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me" (Psalm 51:10). God's answer to the cry, "And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh" (Ezekiel 11:19). HE gave us that pure heart! Or rather, He cut away the flesh--with the circumcision made without hands--in order to REVEAL that pure heart. In order to reveal HIS heart (beating with love) in our chests! Purity of heart has nothing to do with us and everything to do with God. Because, again, it's HIS heart! His Spirit! His love flowing into us, and through us, and out of us! He took away the stony heart that was connected to the stone of the Law of Moses. The heart that was connected to that man-centered, performance-based religion. And He gave us a soft heart. A heart connected to love. He showed us who HE really is, and in doing so He showed us who WE really are. The inner man. The hidden man of the heart. But no longer hidden. No longer closed off. No longer afraid. Not a hard heart that's afraid to lose what it's got, but a soft heart that knows it's connected to the unlimited source. Connected to the God who IS love! He is the vine, and we are the branches right? We don't produce the fruit of the Spirit (which is love) we simply bear it. We simply carry it to those who need it, but don't know they have it. We don't love in order to get something, we love because we have something. And we don't guard our heart by putting up a wall and not letting anything (or anyone) in or out. We guard our (pure) heart by keeping it pure! By receiving and releasing the love of God. By letting Him love us, and loving one another with that same love. Not by closing down, but by opening up!