Heart Matters Part 2: “Some Answers”

So when we left off last week in our little “discussion” I presented you with the question that the speaker of this series left me…”Why don’t we?” What the post from last week was stating is that there were prophets such as Paul who were willing to give everything for just a little more knowledge of the Living God! And we were asked the question again and again “Why don’t we?” Why don’t we yearn for, long for and pursue God like those prophets or like someone who is truly saved?

Ezekiel 14:1-5

So let us look at why. In this passage of Ezekiel, the people of Israel went to the prophet in search of direction from God. As I am sure you know, God led his people through prophets He spoke to…despite what we may sometimes want, which is God just shouting it over the heavens so we can all hear. He then set out his own question and that was one of should I? In answering the people God said (Paraphrased of course) Men will come seeking direction with idolatry in their hearts and I will not answer them but I will talk with them about their idols. So what would constitute and idol of the heart?

It starts with a desire which is not wrong or sinful. We all have desires. Some would like to have a healthy bank account or a nice house and maybe even this great job and there is nothing sinful in these desires. When these desires become Non-negotiable that is when we give birth to an idol. When we as a people start to say “Hey God, do what ever you have to do but I am not leaving my job or changing this aspect of my life” we are closing our fists to the matter. We start to give authority in our lives to these desires or now called idols.

This part started to really make me feel uneasy. I have often known that I suffer from keeping small things from God and I do believe at all times we are all guilty of such matters. I have friends that it literally tears them up as they deal with their own personal idols. In my own I struggle with job and college and of course many personal matters that even my closest friends know nothing about. I have spent so much effort on trying to get bigger (job wise) and better and I have done it all for the sake of self improvement. It is no wonder that over the last few years I have genuinely struggled with my time with God and my own belief system. We continue…

James 4:4-7

James in this passage writes about Pride. Pride is the belief that we can sustain ourselves without any outside help. That when we accomplish thing, no one helped us we did it on our own. Pay close attention in verse 6 to the words “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

Sustaining my life is something I have never tackled. I never really looked at the happiness I sometimes attain from doing something that took a long time or a great deal of effort as pride. But isn’t it? How many times in our prayers or in just general conversation with God do we thank him that our assignments went great or our project that we have been working for was the top of the line. Sure many of us ask for the help but do we offer the thanks for that help? No all too often we overlook it. “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Well in my past of reading this scripture I would have looked straight at the “…gives grace to the humble.” And said yea that is what I am trying to do, isn’t it great that God does such a thing. Hello?!? I totally overlook the part that “God opposes the proud” and in my actions I am often prideful. We all are as Christians. We set our saved hides up on these pedestals that we claim we don’t do and as a friend writes in a blog we look down on somebody because they are lower classed than us. We keep ourselves in our perfect little bubble and “sustain” ourselves all the while we are suffering from pride and God isn’t answering us but waiting to discuss our pride issues? So what is to come of our actions?...

Romans 1:18-23

Read these verses carefully. Play a little game and look for a few key things. In here look for the terrorists, corporations, governments, neighbors and such as to what is to blame for these problems we speak of. Pay special attention to the verse I type:

21. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God (idolatry) nor gave thanks to him (pride), but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.

This passage shows the results of our ways. When we build up idols of the heart and allow pride to consume our lives, God hardens our hearts. Now you’re saying to yourself now “why would God do such a thing?” Think about this for just a minute…is God doing this to us or are we doing this to us? In this matter God is basically telling us “If you want to focus on these things like the better house or better job and that is what makes you happy then by all means go ahead, I won’t stop you.” When our hearts become hardened we don’t understand the messages God tries to convey to each of us. This was often the case with the disciples and pharoses. They often asked questions of Jesus and he answered in parables. This often led to them having more questions because they couldn’t comprehend basic messages due to the fact that idols and pride lived inside of them…their hearts were hardened. God speaks in basic messages to us and we don’t hear him because idols are inside of us and our pride is too great.

If this doesn’t really shake your foundation a little then you could be farther gone than you thought. Even the disciples lived with issues of the heart and pride. Now this can be a huge discouragement if you allow it and I think we need to take from this a lot of disappointment in ourselves but in the same way we can take some good from it. There is no lost cause, the disciples came out of their troubles striving to seek God more. We have to open up the fist we have clinched around our desires and pride and give it to Christ. It is ok to have desires but we must keep our fists open and not close it and not allow God to change it if it is His will.

Now this leads to more questions:

1. How do we know if we have idols in our heart?
2. How do we recognize pride?
3. How do we know if we have closed our fists so that God can not be involved in certain matters?

That is what we tackle in Part 3,4,5 and possible some in 6…I do enjoy the comments or insight or even further discussion into the matters so feel free to “type” your mind.