The Issues of Life

Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
- Proverbs 4:23

Most Christians know what the Bible says about the heart. Jeremiah 17:9 reads: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" But if you read on to verse 10, the LORD says: "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." Even though the human heart is prone to sin, we have a responsibility to guard it. We cannot use Jeremiah 17:9 as an excuse to sin.

What does it mean to be deceitful? It means to be sly, cunning, mischievous, treacherous. Our heart has the same characteristics as the devil. The heart's main objective is to trick you. It is desperately wicked. When you are desperate for something you need it, and you are willing to obtain it by any means necessary. This tells us that our heart seeks evil, it needs wickedness. So if this is the case, how can God search our hearts and find anything good to reward us of?

God has given us the ability to keep or guard our hearts. We can control what goes in and what comes out. We must not think that we know what is in our hearts, for who can know it? But we must work to deprive our heart of what it seeks. We can do this by feeding our heart the Word.

"I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you." - Psalm 119:11

In doing so, we are allowing God to cleanse our hearts from the wickedness it desires. For we are sanctified by the washing of the Word. Once we store the Word in our hearts, we must choose to follow the Word rather than the sinful appetite of our heart. Whoever said that they can trust their heart doesn't know scripture, and whoever said that God knows their heart is right, He knows that it is deceitful and desperately wicked!

"It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.
...whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled. But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person."
Matthew 15:11;17-20

So here we see Jesus explaining that what comes out of our heart is what defiles or pollutes a man. This is because the heart is full of wickedness. We have to guard what comes in and out of our hearts. Whatever causes us to sin, we must cut it off from our life. Whether that be television, the internet, or even friends and associates.

"If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell."
- Matthew 5:29-30

Our hearts must be single to the LORD. They can only become single when we put away the former things of this world and focus on things that are above. The things that we expose ourselves to play a big part in the condition of our heart, for "the lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light. But when your eye is bad, your body also is full of darkness." (Luke 11:34) Our eyes are gates to our heart, and they must be set on things pertaining to Christ, for He is the light. One of satan's schemes is to desensitize us to sin through the world around us and one of his tools is the media. When we take in things that are sinful, such as watching movies and entertainment full of sin and ungodliness, our light begins to dim and our body becomes full of darkness rather than light. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, and whatever we feed ourselves will ultimately come back out in our speech and in our actions.

"My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight." - 1 John 3:18-22

Every issue that we have in this life has to do with the condition of our heart. If we supress the heart's deceitful nature and instead feed ourselves the light of Christ, our conversation and actions will bear good fruit and the LORD will reward us according to the fruit that we bear.

We can have confidence that God will change our hearts; that He will place His desires within us, take away the desires of our naturally deceitful and wicked heart, and give us a new heart of flesh, a heart after Himself just as David had.

I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God.
Ezekiel 11:19-20

Trust in the LORD, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
Psalm 37:3-4