If only....our hearts were as tender and sensitive to God’s voice as my feet are to every little acorn and twig and rock they come in contact with. Over the years, I just kept my feet covered. Imagine if we took God’s advice and protected and guarded our hearts in the same fashion with purpose and intent. But we don’t; and most of us, just like the Israelites that God was always chastising and bringing judgments against...seem to always go astray in our hearts. (Heb. 3:10)
A few verses down from that passage we are warned that it’s the ‘deceitfulness of sin’ that hardens them. (13)
That’s what sin does to our hearts...it hardens them. They become callused and less sensitive. This should not come as a shock to anyone. Have you ever tried to get close to someone, emotionally, who has been hurt repeatedly? It’s not easy because their hearts have hardened and become callused. It’s actually a ‘defense mechanism’ when we don’t allow God to heal them completely. You’ve heard the term ‘hardened criminal’. We find it difficult to believe when we hear the crimes they were capable of committing because of a hardened heart. Sin does that.
Which is why Jesus came to set us free from sin and its grip on our hearts. That’s why we are told to ‘go and sin no more’, not ‘just less’. We were reminded yesterday what a ‘little leaven’ does to a loaf – it spreads and affects the entire loaf.
Glance over Matt. 24:3-12 where Jesus was explaining to His disciples and what we could expect to see in the time leading up to the ‘end of the age’. He warned of mass deception...people following other ‘Christs’...widespread division and conflict...people being offended and betraying one another. There would be more false teachers leading many astray. And then this: “because of lawlessness (sin-or breaking God’s commandments) being widespread the love of many will grow cold...or ‘wax hard’. (12)
Sin does that. It hardens our hearts. And sin is, as we read, deceptive. Sin works its way in so subtly as well. We saw how that played out back in the garden with Eve and the tree. (Gen. 3)
How many of you have struggled repeatedly over the years with a particular sin that you have failed to truly overcome and die to? I would bet you have all but given up hope in ever mastering or overcoming it. Have you noticed how it doesn’t break your heart in conviction like it use to when you stumbled in that area...and you’d run to God and confess and ask for forgiveness and help. Then you’d do good for awhile...and then stumble and fall again. And again, you’d drag your pathetic self-back to your knees and ask God to forgive you once again. Those voices would grow louder as well and more frequent when they would whisper how lowly and weak you were and why would God even forgive you any more...knowing you were going to stumble again. It is a horrific cycle that will wear you down. I bet you thought you were the only one to ever experience that maybe? Ha...not even close. You do know who was behind those ‘whispering voices’ as well...our enemy who is an ‘accuser of the brethren’. (Rev. 12:10)
Maybe you are the victim of physical abuse or have at least witnessed that ugly cycle of rage and anger that is taken out on some hapless victim...a wife or mother perhaps. Then, comes the flood of tears and remorse as the abuser crumbles in shame and grief promising to never do it again begging for mercy. Until the next time.
Here’s a news flash for you...Jesus did not come and promise that we could pick three of our five worst sins to be set free from them. He came to set us free of ALL sin...from the most egregious acts to the ‘smallest in our eyes’. He did this because He knows what all sin does...it hardens our hearts...makes them less responsive to His voice...and then quietly leads us astray where we end up in captivity. He’s been warning us of this cycle ever since time began.
Let me use another example. How about our TV or movie viewing habits? I remember when our girls were young...and we’d have a movie or show on...and those ‘words’ would start popping up that we didn’t want them to hear. You know the drill...you pause the show, redirect them back to their rooms to play so as to ‘protect’ their little ears and tender hearts. Then we come back to finish the show.
Yeah...that makes a lot of sense, does it not? I can remember the Holy Spirit asking in those times...if it’s not good for them, why is it good for you? And I’d just swat that thought away like a bothersome fly. We then grow callused to those words to the point we don’t even recognize them when they blare from our screens that we have conveniently set up in the middle of our family rooms. And need I even address the various ‘ratings’ for movies? I’m sure no one else is guilty of this but I can sure remember watching movies where certain ‘skin’ scenes would show up out of nowhere...and I would cringe and turn away and feel conviction. But over time, you ‘get use to it’...maybe ‘fast forward’ through some of the more graphic scenes. And after awhile, you let them roll on as well...actually...even enjoying them...telling yourself – at least it is not hard porn’. And then we wonder why we struggle with lust and a barrage of thoughts and images that attack you constantly...even while sitting in church with all those spiritual songs and words surrounding us.
You do know that an alcoholic who abstains is fully aware that just one drink can open a door to lots of problems for themselves...which is why they don’t even want to ‘have just one drink’. It takes them captive. I’m not about to suggest any directive here to anyone regarding your viewing habits other than...what would you do if Jesus asked you...like he asked that young rich ruler ‘just one thing’...to ‘lay that TV aside’ and turn from it? Could you do it? OR would something rise up inside wanting to defend keeping it because you are ‘able to control’ it? Again, that’s something you do because God directs you, not because someone else like myself even mentions it.
But my gosh...I cannot explain the benefits that have come about in my life from turning it off for good when He made it clear to me two years ago. It was pretty hard to ‘keep your mind on things above and not on the earth’ (Col. 3:2) and ‘meditating on His law day and night’ (Ps. 1:2) when you have a cable pipe of non-stop noise and distractions and ‘entertainment’ filling your head hours upon hours a day. The question we like to always ask is ‘what’s wrong with such and such’?; when the question maybe we should be asking is ‘what’s good or fruitful or productive’ about it?” TV used to be a nice ‘escape’ for me...still saddens me to think how I could come home from a good church service where God had sown some ‘good seed’ in my heart/mind only to have those seeds washed out with an afternoon of ‘vegging’ in front of a screen watching a mindless game or show.
Go look at Revelation 12:15 and take in the imagery there of a dragon who ‘spews water out of his mouth like a flood’ to ‘carry the woman away by the flood’. Some people might suggest they just turn the TV on to help them ‘fall asleep’ at night. Yeah...I was like that too. I just never knew how ‘deep asleep’ I fell. I believe that is the condition of the church we read about in Matt. 25 where all ten virgins fell asleep before the bridegroom returned. (1-11). And what happens when ‘men sleep’? An enemy comes and plants those seeds that do more harm than good. (Matt. 13:25).
This post is not about your TV/movie viewing habits other than to just show an example of how we grow callused to things we used to know we should avoid. I mean...why are we ‘entertained’ by ‘simulated acts’ of violence and greed and lust and evil...things that God clearly tells us to avoid and that should not even be named among us? (Eph. 5:1-6)
Abiding in Christ was never designed to be an ‘hourly’ commitment where we choose what ‘shift’ we want to be on when we ‘abide’ with Him. It’s a full time salary gig where we are on call 24/7. And if you truly love Jesus...why would you NOT want to be abiding in Him continually? We be like: “Hey Lord...what a great weekend I had with you in service and in your word and fellowship as you did a new work in my heart. But now I got other stuff I want to turn to now for fun and relaxation and entertainment so I’ll see you at a later time.”
I have a feeling this post today may get a little close to home and even stir a little agitation. That’s not my intent. I merely am trying to show how subtle the enemy can work to cause our hearts to go astray and be hardened over time by the deceitfulness of sin. I don’t know anything about bringing a frog to a gradual boil in a pot of water as the old analogy goes. But I have been around long enough to look back and see how the enemy led my heart astray and I don’t ever want that to happen again.
I have discovered that as my heart has become more like my feet, that I am fully aware of every little thing that might offend or grieve the Holy Spirit within me. And instead of trying to justify it or dismiss it, I’m fully aware that God is capturing my attention in ways I’ve never experienced. He wants us to ‘lay aside EVERY sin that would so easily beset us or entangle us. (Heb. 12:1; 1 Cor. 7:1). We are to ‘guard our hearts’ (Prov. 4:23). We are to ‘love him with ALL our heart’ to the point when He whispers to us: “Psst...lay that aside...follow me...I have real treasures for you” (Mark 10:21)...I want to respond to Him and follow because to not do that would suggest I’m loving something else more than Him. And then we have a problem with idols being set up in our hearts.
Are you one of His sheep? “”My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. “ (John 10:27). Do you belong to Christ? “Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” (Gal. 5:24). Are you abiding in Him continually? “Whoever abides in Him does not sin...he cannot sin because he’s been born of God”. (1 John 3:6,9)
Have a blessed day...
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