Journey into Lightl

Living godly from the heart begins with carefully reading and meditating on the Bible and listening to good biblical teaching. God then uses it to transform our minds as we slowly gain the mind of Christ. And knowing goes beyond just knowing about God but experiencing him as we learn to trust in him from the heart. The Spirit uses the word to change us to be like himself. And it’s God that changes us; not our beating ourselves up because of a lack of faith or redoubling our efforts to live the supernatural life without connecting to God.

One of the most important things we can do to live godly from the heart is to know what is going on in there. And that is not easy. So much of our hearts are filled with the lies, deceptions and evil from our old lives that still influence us. These things often unconsciously wage war with the truth we know. “The heart is deceitful above all else and is desperately sick, who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9, NAS)

We can understand our hearts by inviting the Holy Spirit to search them for any ungodly thoughts, motives, desires, or actions and to reveal them to us. This helps us detect any hurtful ways (Psalm 139:23,24). Only the supernatural power of God can penetrate our layers of deception and defenses that harden our hearts to correction. As God reveals our hearts to us, we can turn the things we can’t change over to him to work out, and act on the things we can change with his help.

The Holy Spirit uses the truth sown in our hearts to enable us to detect the false ways in there. Our role is relying on God and his word to attack the lies when they are exposed. We are powerless to live the Christian life if we don’t do battle with Satan by using God’s word.

For example, a lie I tell myself is that the world is watching to judge me. And that scares me. I meet this lie with the truth that in God’s eyes, I am precious, honored and loved (Isaiah 43:4). And his judgment is what is true. This truth sets me free from being a slave to what others think of me.

But Satan can use our hearts to lead us astray if we let him. We can reduce our exposure to his devious ways if we pay attention to what we put into our minds and rely on to be true. I had to recently cut back on listening to cable news because of its negative bent which violated God’s word about focusing on what is positive (Philippians 4:8). Instead, I watch positive shows that display human nature and reality in a more positive light. But even then, I need to be careful of the messages that come through the story line.

May we all watch over our hearts with all diligence, for from it flows the springs of life (Psalm 27:4) and learn to live godly from the heart. What goes on in our hearts determines our destiny. May we all have the wisdom to cooperate with God as he transforms us from the heart out.

Recall an area of your Christian life in which you struggle to be victorious. Ask God to reveal to you any lies or anything else you are relying on that is hindering you from trusting God to give you that victory. Commit this struggle to God and thank him for the victory he will enable you to have (Psalm 37:5).