The Confident Heart

Do you think you can pass any test? Are you confident? Where does you confidence come from? David was confident that he could pass the test. He saw himself on solid ground. Psalm 26 captures David's confidence.

In Psalm 26:1, David asks for vindication. He wants the Lord to show others that he was right to trust in the Lord. David calls himself blameless. What does it mean to be blameless? David can't mean sinless, because only Jesus Christ was sinless. He must me mean something else. He clarifies his statement with the words, "I have trusted the Lord without wavering." David's righteousness rested in his faith in the Lord.

More amazing than David's claims is his request for God to test him. To paraphrase, he says check me from top to bottom. David is asking for a test. Most of us shy away from tests, but not David. He knew that his heart was prone to sinfulness, why ask God to search him. David wanted to where error was so that he could repent of it.

David was confident that he could stand up under God's scrutiny. But why? David's confidence wasn't in himself, but the Lord. As we read through Psalm 26:3-8, David tells us the reasons for his confidence. He kept the Lord's love before him. Whether David meant God's love was an ever-present reality in his life or that he continued to meditate on the reality of God's love for him, David was mindful of God's love. David walked in the Lord's truth. The truth here refers to God's Word. Walking in the Word, lead David to lead a holy life. David's life also centered on sincere worship of the Lord.

David's confidence was the work of the Lord in his life. He could see how God was working in him, and he knew God would continue. To that end, David asked God to keep him. Psalm 26:9-11 records David's prayer. In essence, he says, "Don't throw me away with the bad people."

David rested in the knowledge of God's faithfulness. He knew the Lord delights in showing mercy, so David trust in the Lord. That trust gave David the confidence to face any test? Are you trusting the Lord?

Finding Heart

The love we hold back is the love we lose.  I was painfully shy when I was a child.  I found it very difficult to allow myself to trust people.  I found it easier to keep people at arms length.  I always held part of myself back.  However, I have learned that in holding back, I was the one who lost.

When we live our lives as slaves to fear, we miss out on many opportunities to mature as a person.  Measures  taken to avoid the pain of rejection and heartache, often prevent us from becoming fully functional mature adults. We go through life like wounded children, never quite certain of ourselves or our circumstances.

This insecurity heightens our fears, and we build up a persona to mask our terror.  All the while, we anxiously await the moment when the veil drops, and we are exposed for who we are.  If you have ever experienced these feelings, you understand how this vicious cycle spirals down deeper and deeper.  It feels as if there is never a moment when you can just relax and be yourself.

The time comes (repeatedly) when you have to decide whether or not you will stand or run.  If you decide to stand, then you have to risk trusting someone who may stab you in the back, or who may rip your heart right out of your chest, or who may love you unconditionally just the way you are.  They may see your neurosis for what it is: fear, and they may decide to love you through it.  If you decide to stand, then you might have to risk losing the very object of your love.

How can you mature without the risk?  If you play it safe, who wins.  Do you win, even though you're emotionally immature, insecure, and riddled with anxiety? Is that winning?  Does the person who needed your love win, even though you never gave it?  No, the love you keep is the love you lose.

God has blessed me with many wonderful people who have loved me just as I am.  He has also allowed me to be in situations where I had to learn a deeper love through the experience of loss or betrayal.  Before Ellie was born, I could not imagine how parents could endure prolonged illness in their child or how they would survive their child's death.  I didn't know how unimportant I could become (to myself), or that I could totally re-prioritize my life around the needs of another.  Yet, God, in his grace, enabled me to do these things.  

Ellie's premature birth, physical complications, and her subsequent death were so bitterly painful.  Looking back on the situation, I see how God was stretching and growing me each day we had with her.  In a lot of ways, I think my encounter with Ellie brought me into manhood.  Her complications forced me to take on a level of responsibility that I had never faced.  I was responsible for her life, and in that moment I decided I would do whatever it took.  It is a decision I will never regret, even though things didn't turn out as planned.

I could have protected myself.  I could have said no to the idea of adoption.  I could have abandoned Ellie, and left the decisions up to her birth mother, a frightened teenage girl alone in the world.  In God's providence, I took the risk.  I stepped out in faith, and opened my heart to love.  But instead of losing everything, I found a heart.  It was a heart that was deeper and wider, a heart that understood the cost of tough choices and was ready to make them, a heart that rested in knowing God's heart.  I also found a man, who was unwilling to live in fear any longer, a man willing to love no matter what the risk, because he now knows: the love we keep is the love we lose.

A New Heart

"Deceit is in the heart of those who devise evil, but those who plan peace have joy" (Prov. 12:20, ESV).

There is a certain sense in which we are all planners. We may not have a day-planner or a ten year plan, but somewhere deep inside of us is a heart that plans. Now the intent of that heart, will be determined largely by the things that fill it. Jesus said, "What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexually immorality, theft, murder, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person" (Mark 7:20-23, ESV).

Jesus' words expand on what Solomon has said here: Deceit is in the heart of the those who devise evil. Evil heart, evil plans. Now, I know you are breathing a sigh of relief right now, thinking that you don't have an evil agenda. However, God's idea of evil and our idea of evil aren't always in the same ballpark. Unless our understanding of evil is informed and controlled by the Word of God, we will be off of the mark.

Notice in Jesus' list that there are somethings we might not find particularly offensive like pride, envy, or foolishness. However, Jesus says these things defile. They pollute. They make a person unholy in the eyes of God. The simple fact is that the human heart is a wile beast. It is subtle and cunning. By the Spirit, Jeremiah wrote, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" (Jer. 17:9, ESV).

Then, who is it that can make plans of peace? Those whom the Spirit regenerates. When the Spirit applies the gospel to the heart, awakening sinners to their need, he gives them a new heart. The Lord said, "I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart" (Jer. 24:7, ESV). Paul express the same truth, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold, the new has come" (2 Cor. 5:17, ESV).

This reality, that we are new creations, should move us to work out our new natures. The heart, through faith in Christ, is transformed so that it now desires to do the will of God, where formerly it desired its own sinful desires. The nature of indwelling sin, and the old habits of the heart, lead to a struggle against sin (see Romans 7). And while we may not always succeed in walking in obedience, the desire to obey the Lord is their.

Thus, it is a person whose heart has not been regenerated that habitually allows their heart to generate deceptive schemes. Evil schemes precede from an evil heart, but it means more than simply evil actions. A person of a regenerate heart might tell a lie (which would still be a sin), but they will not habitually live a lie, such as, making themselves out to be holier than they are or more important than they are. The evil schemer is intent on doing evil, it is his desire to satisfy the cravings of his flesh, regardless of what the Law of the Lord says.

But a person whose heart has been transformed by the gospel isn't out to do evil. They don't want to destroy their neighbor, instead they plan peace. They love their neighbors as themselves and pray for those who persecute them. And while they may stumble and struggle, they continue to seek the Lord's forgiveness and guidance. If the driving force in your life is love for the Lord, you can breath a little easier. Your evil heart has been removed, its sins have received their full punishment in Christ's body on the cross. You have been given a new heart, with which you can plan peace to the glory of God.

Heart Defects

Proverbs states, "As in water face reflects face, so the heart of man reflects that man" ( Prov. 27:19). Often when the Bible speaks of the heart it is referring to the inner person. The "inner person" is sum of all we really are. The heart was the seat of conviction, will, reason, and intellect. A defective "heart" means that our convictions, wills, reason, and intellects are all defective.

Jeremiah states, "The heart is deceitful about all things, and desperately wicked; who can understand it?" (Jer. 17:9). The follow up question should be: "Whose heart?". The answer to that follow up is: our hearts. The human heart is defective. Humans come into this world turned away from God. Do you believe this? How did your heart respond to Jeremiah's words? Has it been trying to rationalize them away? Is your heart saying, "surely that doesn't apply to me?"

My heart desperately wants to believe it is not that bad. My inner man tries to convince me all the time that I am a pretty good guy. I do a lot of good stuff, and I don't do any really bad stuff--like kill people, but the Spirit of God does not sit idly by allowing my sinful heart to go unchecked. No, the Holy Spirit continues to apply the law of God to my heart, convicting me of my sin, convincing me of my need of salvation, and comforting me with the truth that through repentance and confession I can be cleansed of all unrighteousness (see 1 John 1:9).

As I thought about this proverb and Jeremiah's words, I was reminded of Jesus' assessment of the human heart. He stated, "What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of a man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness, all these things come from within, and they defile a person" (Mark 7:20-23). We have to remember that even during his earthly ministry could see into the hearts of all men. He was not speaking hypothetically here. In the dark waters of the human heart a horrific reflection emerges.

We are creatures, who by nature, need new hearts. I am not talking about a physical heart transplant, but a spiritual one. It is a transplant accomplished by the Lord as he states, "I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws" (Ezk. 11:19-20). Those who receive this transplant will keep the law, because God will put his "law in their minds and write it on their hearts" (Jer. 31:33).

This event happens when the Holy Spirit comes to us and through the gospel convicts us of our sin, convinces us of our need of righteousness and of the coming judgment. He compels us to receive Christ as our Lord and Savior. When we trust in Christ's saving work and his glorious person the Spirit comes and dwells in us. He begins the process of sanctification, setting us apart for service to God and conforming us to the image of Christ.

A heart would have us to believe that this is the end of the matter. It wants us to believe that with the Spirit present no work remains for us. "God wants us changed let him change us," it says. What makes this line of thinking is that it has some truth to it. When we turn from sin to God through faith in Jesus, God does change us. He gives us a new nature. He gives us a new identity. But, we must learn how to live out this new nature and identity within the same old context. We are not taken from the world, we are not simply converted into perfect, sinless people. We become those who are in the world, though no longer of it.

Paul helps us to strike a helpful balance in our view. He states, "Continue to work our your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purposes" (Phil 2:12-13). We are called to work out our salvation. This statement does not mean that we can earn our salvation. It means that if we trust in the Lord there will be fruit in our lives. But, Paul also reminds us that as we work, we must remember that it is God who is bringing about his will and purposes in our lives. We are commanded to walk in obedience and then promised that God will enable us.

The reason that this is so difficult is that our heart is continually (often subtly) trying to convince us that its just fine. The heart wants to believe it as pure as new fallen snow, but it has been totally transformed yet. Even after believing the gospel, the heart needs continual work. The fastest way to see change in our lives and behavior is to fill our heart with something other than what is currently in there. As Jesus said the natural state of the human heart is filthy. The Psalmist says, "I have hidden your word in my heart that I may not sin against you" (Ps. 119:11). The Holy Spirit transforms us primarily through applying God's Word to our lives. If we fill our hearts with the Word of God, through reading, study, meditation and memorization we the Holy Spirit an arsenal to use in battling the erring heart. Conversely, the less we know and study Scripture the slower change will be, because we become slow of understanding through spiritual malnourishment.

I hope you take this post to heart. But take heart, the heart is not beyond remedy. God has provided the remedy through the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is my prayer that you will, "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God" (Col. 3:15-16).