#DevotionsWithTee - The Heart Transplant

INTRO OF TOPIC

Today’s topic is about the heart:
In Proverbs 4:23,
we are called to keep our hearts with all diligence
for out of it flow the issues of life. In other words guard our hearts.
Jesus himself reiterated this in Luke 6:45 where He said, “A
good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is
good; an evil man out of the treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is
evil : for the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh”.
But what exactly is the heart and how do we
guard it? If it is evil how do we transform it? Is it even possible to
transform it and prevent oneself from sinning?
The method I usually use in my devotions is the SOAP bible study method. It’s similar to PEE –
point, evidence and explanation. This is Scripture, so the bible verse that
I’ve chosen to read, O is the observation that we make upon reading the bible
verse and A is how we can apply it to our own lives, P is prayer and I will
leave some prayer points, or you can say your own prayer. I may not say SOAP
specifically but that’s what I am doing. Feel free to make your own notes as I
go along and share with you what I got from my devotion and readings about
this.

WHAT IS THE HEART?

Before I go any further, in order to understand
our hearts, we must first know what the bible is referring to when it mentions
the heart. I went and researched this because I actually got confused. What I noticed for myself is that often times the heart,
mind and soul can be used interchangeably to describe our sort of character.
Not at all times! But often. Essentially it is the centre of our spirit. The
place where we make decisions and engage with things whether these be good or
bad things.

So let’s implement that into what I said before.

Keeping our heart with all
diligence; guarding them – your protecting your mind, and your soul.
This means setting boundaries. What conversations are you having with people?
What shows are you watching? What places are you going to? Even down to the
very music we listen to. I’m going to put my hand up and say music is one area
I struggle in. You may not realise it, but the language used in these songs,
our brains are delicate you know. We pick up these things so easily and surely
enough we are saying or in some cases even doing the things described about in
these songs… Does this music align with our principals? I’m not saying it has
to be gospel or Christian music but is it degrading or foul? Same with the
conversations? Who do you have daily interactions with? Do they display
behaviour that you would or that you should?

Are we – as my dad says – “feeding ourselves spiritually?”
Do you study your bible, do you even attempt to? Do you take some time to have
chit chat with God? Sing some praises maybe?

As they say, you are what you think. So what are you putting
into that mind or heart of yours?

Honestly, what do you feed your
heart with? Is it destroying you? Is that feeling of gratification worth it?

I scream it time and time again, but reflection is
important, self-reflection but also reflecting in God’s presence. Asking God to
make it clear to you on what needs to change…

Going back to Luke 6:45 – an evil
man out of the evil of the treasure of his heart
bringeth forth that which is evil… If we take what the Heart is
again, our character, our desires, our morals our spiritual selves. This would
be your treasure wouldn’t it? So what you’re producing is  A bad character?
Sinful desires and lusts, twisted morals and an evil spirit and the result of
all of this is SIN.

Why do we sin? Because we have not guarded our hearts, we
have allowed evil to seep in so now our desires and morals and so forth are not
in line with God’s will. This is why God is constantly calling for our
“hearts”. We keep sinning because we are following a heart that does not have
God in it. We constantly sing and speak about surrendering it all, but we never
do so.

HOW DO WE STOP SINNING?

Simple answer – Surrender.

In a devotional I read about overcoming sin, there was a
part that stood out to me – it read: “You cannot deprive yourself, ignore your desires
or beat your will into submission. Why? Because your mind and will [that being
your physical mind and will as we know it] aren’t the centre of your decision-making
process, your heart is. If you don’t love something, you won’t do it. If you
don’t hate something, you won’t leave it alone.”

See often when we sin, we feel guilty and instead of going
to God we feed on this guilt and punish ourselves. It’s really a never-ending
cycle like binge eating. You restrict yourself from eating something, you give
into your cravings, feel guilty so restrict yourself again.

Colossians 2:20 to 23 explains it well. The Easy English
Bible 2018 version says from verse 22:

 (22) Rules like that [ the rules and
restrictions we place upon ourselves] are only about things that spoil when you
use them. They are rules that come from human ideas

(23) They teach you what you
must do to worship God. They teach you to serve other people like a slave. They
say that you must hurt yourself to rule over your body. Rules like that may
seem to be wise. But really they are not worth anything. They can not stop our
weak human nature from doing the bad things we want to do.”

This might sound
contradictory to what I just said about putting in boundaries which are
essentially rules but if you think about it, those boundaries are there to
prevent the sin from happening as we are called to guard our hearts because
prevention is better than cure. The rules I am talking about here are the ones
after you’ve sinned, and that habit is formed or that thought is constantly
occurring how do I make it go away?

This is why we need to surrender and ask for help. Psalms 73:26 says, “My
flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my portion
for ever”. This verse exemplifies that we actually cannot do it on our
own. That well-known verse Ephesians 6:12 already
tells us that this ongoing battle of sin is not a
battle of the flesh but against principalities, spiritual wickedness therefore
we need the help of a supernatural being because we cannot defeat it on our
own.

Deuteronomy 30:6 says “And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart; and the
heart of thy seed, to love the Lord God with all thine heart, and with all thy
soul, that thou mayest live.

The Easy English Bible 2018 version
puts it sweetly and says: The Lord your God will
make you and your children like different people. Then you will love him
completely and you will live.

Again, the verse is emphasising that only God has the
ability to change our hearts. To conform them but if we choose to stay in our
sin and mess, how will we hear what He wants us to do?

This is why in Romans 12:2 God
is calling us to come out of the world and be
transformed by the renewing of our minds but remember what I said about
heart and mind being interchangeable at times – so essentially the renewing of
your spirit.

 I am making it sound
easy but trust me I know it can be a difficult journey HOWEVER good news is
found in both Deuteronomy 4:29 and Matthew 7:7 – you are
told to seek, and you most definitely will find. Once you start to seek
God, you will find Him. Remember the prodigal son, he went home, and his father
saw him a while off and ran to him. Same way if you going looking to follow
God, He will come to you and it all starts there. Daily surrendering. Daily
asking God to come in. Once that has been done God will unveil the next steps
and the next steps. That’s why I believe
Christianity isn’t a religion but a journey and a different one for each
person.

No journey is straight lined – look at David, Acts 13:22 tells us God
called him a man after His own heart but if we read on David’s life,
this man committed some sins. Yet when he asked God to create in him a clean
heart, God did.

Look at Moses. He started off a murderer. He lacked faith
when he was called to serve but told God he couldn’t because he couldn’t speak
properly. Yet in the end, every thing that the Israelites took to Moses, Moses
took to God. But see even Moses slipped up, got vex and struck the rock.
Sometimes we will strike the rock but it’s okay because God forgives. Moses
never got to enter the promise land. Many times we will have to face
consequences for our actions but that doesn’t make God’s mercy or love any
less. Moses is really up in Heaven. Meaning you can make it too! Many people
believe you have to come to God as a perfect being which is why many don’t get
baptised because they feel they’re not righteous enough.

It all starts with surrendering
the heart and making sure what you’re allowing into your heart is good. God is
offering that heart transplant, He just wants us to stop delaying and come into
His office today.

PRAYER POINTS

Ask God to reveal to you what needs to be
changed in your heart
Ask God for forgiveness for these things
Ask God to create in you a clean heart and ask
Him to come in and dwell with you

Thank you for reading and if you haven’t already watched the video for this, please find the link below.

https://youtu.be/0BulJufGv7M