The Problem With Our Hearts

Behavior modification is all the rage in religion.  When you study the main precepts of any religion it is deeply tied to behavior.  Do this, don't do that.  To be a good "whatever" requires certain behavior markers that prove on the surface that you are what you claim to be.  At its heart is the idea that we, through our own strength, can perform acts of righteous justification.  Our self-evaluation, and the evaluation of others, becomes rooted in these measurables.  It seems so simple, so obtainable, so righteous.

But behavior modification is a load of baloney. 

My kids do not behave in the manner that I wish they would.  They are selfish, disobedient, difficult, whiny, frustrating.  Anyone who has raised kids could probably list some pretty funny scenarios where their kids bad behavior caused a bit of embarrassment.  Every day we go back to the drawing board of doing our best to shape and direct their behavior so that they can grow up to not get themselves put in jail. 

What I, and all parents, need to recognize is that bad behavior is not just bad behavior.  It is an outflow of the heart.  My son doesn't just need to stop telling us that we make "gisgusting" food as he pushes his plate angrily away.  He needs to have his heart, his innermost being, changed to WANT to honor his parents and be obedient.  I am bigger and stronger than him(for now) and I could absolutely force his behavior in a more appealing direction.  But what happens when I am no longer stronger and he lives on his own? 

In Matthew 12:34 Jesus has an insightful line, "For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart."  This whole section in Matthew is Jesus confronting the Pharisees in their behavior modification priorities at the expense of peoples hearts.  Your actions, in a vacuum, are not what honors God.  Your heart is what God seeks. 

So how do we change hearts?

"Moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul so that you may live"--Deuteronomy 30:6

Religions love to talk about what you have to do to be good enough.  Jesus talks about what God is going to do so that you will be seen as righteous.  Behavior modification will only take us so far.  The fundamental change of our hearts will change our behavior forever. 

When we look at our lives and hearts we can see, when we are honest, so much sin and absurdity.  Quick to anger, bitterness, infidelity of heart and behavior, jealousy, etc.  And we can exhaust ourselves constantly trying to combat it.  There are little victories of course, but the war is always keeping us back on our heels.  God's promise is that the war is over, the victory is won, our hearts will be changed.  But only when we allow ourselves to have our hearts circumcised by Him.

Do you know you need to change?  Are there behaviors and sins that you just can't seem to get real control over?  Come to the Cross.  This isn't just some sort of philosophical theorizing, it is practical and true.  Repent and believe, the Kingdom is near. 

     

What's Right is Never Easy

Matthew 7:13-14
¹³ “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. ¹⁴ But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."

The human body is composed of approximately 60% percent water.  Water is the king of Osmosis.  In simple terms, osmosis is water moving from places of high concentration to places of low concentration following the path of least resistance.  Which is interesting because us humans are also great at osmosis.

We avoid challenges.

We run from difficulties.

We stay right where we are at if there is any sense of "danger" or pressure in moving in a new direction.

We seek the comforting embrace of familiarity, regardless of its problems.

And because of that, we rarely change and grow.  In our avoidance of challenges we find ourselves tomorrow and the next day, right where we are today.  The problems that assail us now will assail us always.  It is only through taking on the difficult tasks that lay before us that we can hope to see ourselves become who we desperately desire to be.

Eleanor Roosevelt is quoted as saying that every day we should do something that scares us.   And there is nothing scarier than changing what you have done to pursue something new.  To become new.  To be remade.

But its possible.  Completely doable.  

In this passage Jesus is talking about the Gates of Heaven and the narrow path that leads us there versus the wide and comfortable path that leads to destruction(hell).  This spiritual truth of the easy path being the dangerous path is written into the DNA of every one of us.  Doing what is right is never easy.  

Walking with God and rejecting the things of the flesh is always a much more difficult and unfamiliar journey than the comforting familiarity of our self centered decision making.  For many of us the greatest obstacle to truly walking with God is our fear of what we cannot see.  It is so much easier to just handle what we are used to.  It is so much more difficult to walk a path that you cannot walk alone.  

So we walk forward towards our own destruction.

Are you happy with where you are right now? 

Are you content and satisfied?

Are you able to look with healthy pride at the condition of your heart and life?

If you answer yes to that, great.  If you are like most of us, the answer is probably, not really.  So what are you going to do?  Are you going to continue doing what you have always done.  Living for self.  Leaning on the behaviors and attitudes that put you here?

I hope not.

Jesus didn't tell us about the wide and narrow paths to shove it in our faces that we are destined for destruction.  The full context of His ministry and message of the Gospel is that the narrow path is something you can find, and something you can walk.

But not alone. 

You CANNOT set your feet moving forward in the way you should go by yourself.

Here are some thoughts for getting your journey straightened out.

1)  Be brutally honest with yourself.  What is it that you are doing consistently that causes problems in your life?  Is it specific choices of behavior?  Is it people you allow to influence you?  Is it what you allow your heart/mind to dwell on?

2)  Take those honest answers and start praying!!!  You are not alone.  You cannot do this alone.  Even if you don't think you can handle changing, pray about that.  Like the Centurion one said to Jesus, "I believe, help me with my unbelief!"

3)  Pursue healthy people in your life to be brutally honest with, who will hold you accountable and call you out(with grace) for your behaviors and attitudes.  Who will lovingly remind you of the hope you have in the strength that is found in Christ.

4)  Rinse and repeat

Nothing in life that is worth having comes easy.  Becoming new, being restored, having freedom from sin.  These are all absolute true promises of given hope because of the finished work of Christ. 

Don't give up because it is hard.  If it is hard, you are doing something right!