The Perpetual Worshiper

Story of Our Hearts…

I think that everyone in the universe can relate to the fact that we’ve all done something in our life that looking back at it we ask ourselves “What was I thinking in that moment?” or “Why did I do that?” or something of that nature… whether it was the yearbook picture  with the funky hair-do that you thought was cool at the time, or that guy or girl you dated and now you think to yourself “Why in the world did I date him? How did I think he was so cool?”  or “Why did I ask her out? What made me think she was pretty?” Or it was a job you worked at or a party you went to…

We all have those moments in our lives where, looking back, we wonder “How could I have been so stupid? That was probably the dumbest decision I could’ve made in that moment.” And now, looking back with 20-20 vision, it was SO obvious, and it was so apparent that it was a bad decision and now we think “I should have never gone that way, I should have never done that, I should have never decided that thing in my life.”

What if some of the decisions that you and I are living out right now are the moments that we’re going to look back on in the future and ask ourselves “What was I thinking?” What if some of the things that we are involved in, in our lives, some of the practices we have going on in our day to day routine, are going to end up one day being our biggest regrets? And how would we know that?  How would we figure that out? We get that scripture doesn’t have a black and a white for every single situation, now there are some places in the Bible that specifically say don’t ever ever ever ever ever do this or that or etc. Scripture says that about Adultery; Adultery is always always always always always a bad idea… and if you and I decide to violate that, if we say, “I’m just not going to listen to what scripture says clearly and openly and without apology,” then we deserve regret and we deserve moments of looking back and saying, “Wow, I completely messed up.”

So don’t you wish that there was something to help you navigate your way through those moments/situations in life? The cool part about it is that there is. In fact, there is an entire book of the Bible dedicated to helping you and I make wise decisions when the decision isn’t black and white, when the decision could have multiple answers depending on what happened the last time you did that, or what your current circumstances are right now, or when I look into the future and you say “This is where I want my life to get to some day and when I’m done this is where I want to land in my life.” There is a book in the Bible that says “Here is Wisdom. Here are good answers that literally if you take the time to listen, if you allow these words to be intertwined with your life and, if anything, allow them to envelope your way of thinking or living; when you’re making decisions and it isn’t black and white, and they aren’t totally clear, it could go either way, is it the wise thing, is it the smart thing for me to do…” and that book is the  book of Proverbs… in which God enlists the wisest man who ever walked the face of the earth and says “I need you to write down wisdom principles. I need you to write down things that if Christians, Followers of God, were willing to let this speak into their lives, if they were willing to listen and apply it to their lives when wisdom was offered… their lives would be changed.”

At first glance at Proverbs you and I go, “Wow, why wouldn’t you read a book like that? Why wouldn’t everybody just pour themselves into the book of Proverbs. I mean if that’s what it can do… If it can take what is unclear and fuzzy and make it clear then, man, why doesn’t everybody just pour themselves into the book of proverbs?”

And yet, here’s the answer…  Sometimes…  A lot of times… Wisdom is not the most comfortable answer; that when we first listen to Wisdom, our initial response is “Thanks… but No Thanks. If that’s what it means to be wise then I choose to be stupid.”

There are some questions that aren’t specifically mentioned in the Bible that we are constantly looking for answers to in our lives today, like, “Should I buy a car?” or, “Should I go to this school?” or, “Should I date this person?” But these can all be answered through prayer obviously, and, specifically now, wisdom. You see, God may not say directly in the Bible, “Thou shalt not get thyself a cool Mercedes,” but the Bible does call us to be wise with our money and to put it towards things that will benefit eternity, things that will further the kingdom in the sense of giving selflessly, buying what is necessary, etc.. The Bible might not directly tell you, “Thou shalt go to Biola or APU,” or something like that, but the Bible does say to be wise about the environments you put yourself in, and that it might be wiser for you to go to a school like a cheap community college or a safe university as opposed to a party school like Santa Barbara or ASU where sex and partying are an all-too casual occurrence. The Bible may not make light of whether or not you should date a specific person, but it definitely shows the type of person you should pursue, and it is all too easy to justify ourselves and what we feel in our hearts when we want to date someone who is attractive on the outside, and sure they are Christian, but based on some of their actions in past relationships, it sure isn’t a true, pure reflection of Jesus on the inside.

We all have a sinful nature that is constantly deterring us away from God. We are inherently evil people, and just because you and I may have a relationship with God doesn’t mean we are any closer to being a perfect human being than someone who doesn’t know Jesus; we just have a relationship with God that gives us the opportunity to be refined and to better serve those and help those who cannot help themselves and most importantly show the unconditional love of our Father. BUT, just because we have a relationship with Jesus, doesn’t mean that we are being refined into everything we were made to be, and that is not Jesus’ fault, it’s our fault. We always have an opportunity to be better people, but when the moment comes, we fail, because Proverbs is too inconvenient for us because it isn’t easy.

Proverbs desperate cry is to get realigned with God, and if you listen to these principles and allow them to change the course of your life, then you’re going to go the direction that God wants you to head in… as it pertains to being a good student, a good boyfriend or girlfriend, a good brother or sister, or a good employee; as it pertains to the kind of alliances we make, the decisions we make, as it pertains to how we respond to wisdom, or what kind are person are we.

I want to “talk” in a sense about something that is very prevalent in our culture today, something that people talk about all the time, everyone kind of wants to know what it’s all about, everyone has their own idea about it, etc.. We’re not going to listen to what the world has to say about it, we’re solely going to rely on what the Bible has to say, and solely heed to the advice that scripture, especially proverbs, has to offer.

When it comes to making a decision, where we are forced to act according to what we believe is right and what we believe is wrong. We want to do what is right and we want to go the high road and head the right way, but something inside us that is causing us to do something that we don’t want to do, that is pulling us away from where we want to go… Ultimately, in this sense, it controls the outcome… and it’s the dilemma of what it means to be a sinful human being in the light of a righteous and holy God. “I want to go this way God and do what is right, but there is something inside of me that is causing me to go the opposite direction, and I can’t stand it.”

We identify there is something inside of us that leads us where we know is not where we should go… “Why did I make such a poor decision? What was that all about?” We get that, that’s a part of our reality, that we make decisions that we makes us ask ourselves, “ Why did I just do that again?”

This is the thing inside of us that causes us to fall in love, it is the thing that breeds hate… it is the thing inside of us that pulls us towards Christ, and the same thing that pulls us away from Christ… it is the thing inside of us that pursues righteousness… but it is also the thing inside of us that pursues absolute evil. It causes us to be compassionate and to look upon people who are hurting and say, “Oh my heart breaks for them.” It is also the thing inside of us that creates bitterness, “I don’t care about it, it’s about me.” It allows for us to be grateful for what we have, a house, a car, friends and family, but also to be very envious of what other people have; “They don’t deserve that! They are terribly wretched people! I deserve that, I am a good person. They don’t deserve that house. He’s a crook. I’m honest with people.” It’s that thing that helps us identify with the fact that we were made in the image of the almighty God, and He made us the way He wanted to make us. It’s also the thing that allows us to look in the mirror and say, “God you just messed up with this one, you messed up with me;” so we don’t see ourselves in the image of Christ, and as a side-note, I must ask what right do we have to describe ourselves or to look at ourselves and even each other in any other way other than in the way of our Creator who made us fearfully, wonderfully, beautifully and perfectly… Unfortunately, regardless of that, we see ourselves in the way everyone else sees us. That thing inside of us helps navigate that and direct us either way. It allows us to be very selfless, to think of other first. It is the thing inside us that makes us incredibly selfish, and only think of ourselves. “I don’t have time to do all the work I need to do, I don’t even have enough money to pay for rent; how am I going to be able to give money to the church?” I relate to this all too well unfortunately. That same moment, that same thing is inside of us. I am going to have share with you honestly about the heart, focusing on Proverbs 4.

Proverbs 4 is written in this tone, like a father talking to a son, in a sense, a theme throughout proverbs and especially prevalent here. In a way its set up as, “Listen, my son,” about three or four times. Listen, pay attention, focus…. Ah, focus, my worst enemy. I have the worst attention span in the world; just ask the world, they’ll unfortunately vouch for me. Learning to drive, my mom and dad always put a huge deal of emphasis on paying attention, focusing, “eyes on the road,” etc., when it came to driving, because if I didn’t listen to the words they were articulating and if I didn’t focus and pay attention to the road, I could seriously hurt or kill someone, all drivers know this. It’s a similar kind of tone that Proverbs has. “Listen to me. Pay Attention to my words. Eyes up here, focus.”

Proverbs 4:20-22 says this:
²⁰ My child, pay attention to what I say. 
      Listen carefully to my words. 
 ²¹ Don’t lose sight of them. 
      Let them penetrate deep into your heart, 
 ²² for they bring life to those who find them, 
      and healing to their whole body.

Now, verse 23 is a verse you need to highlight, underline, circle, put boxes, squares, hearts, rectangles, dots, and stars around. This verse will revolutionize your life, much like every verse in the Bible, but this is one of the verses that will do that especially. Proverbs has already given a bunch of advice, I’ve told you what wisdom is all about and that she’s awesome and she’s amazing and that you need to follow and live after it and if you don’t you’re going to make a bunch of mistakes. That’s important, but this is most incredibly important.

Proverbs 4:23 says this:
²³ Guard your heart above all else, 
      for it effects everything you do.

It effects everything you dp. It effects the way you speak, everything you do and don’t do, it effects the way you handle people, the way you don’t handle people, the way you argue and don’t argue, it effects all of it. It effects all areas of life; one translation says it is the wellspring for life. This is how I know that: If you have ever been in a car with an angry driver, you know this is true. You’re in the passenger seat and your-angry-driver friend is driving on the freeway and you get behind someone really slow. The driver suddenly turns into a maniac. “OH MY GOSH BUGGIDYTHISFGSDGSDGS!” Their hands are wailing all around and throwing fingers in the air and using naughty words and such and slapping the wheel and punching the window, and you’re like “I love you,” and he’s like “SHUT UP! I’M TRYING TO DRIVE BEHIND STUPID DRIVERS.” They just turn into this wretched person. But then, they get around that person and start coasting at their desired speed and then everything changes. They’re all, “Man, wasn’t that weird,” with this big smile on this face. They turn to you all cheerful, “Hey buddy! Let’s go to In’n’Out, my treat, get’chya a shake cause you’re fantastic. Honey! You’re beautiful. Wasn’t Bryan’s blog post last night just amazing? So inspiring, he nailed that sucker, praise God.” As the passenger you’re just freaking out because they were demon-possessed and then an angel. So if you’ve witnessed that or been that then you know then something weird is goin’ on, that something causing that, that the whole friggen-flabbergasted-to-“Samaritan of the year”-award-within-five-seconds isn’t just happenstance. It’s the heart. It’s just that crazy evil thing inside of us. I mean, if we’re not careful, it’s going to lead in a direction we don’t want to go.

I mentioned earlier that I am a terrible driver. I am even worse as a navigator. I am terrible with directions and everything; I don’t even know left and right, always getting lost. Thankfully, I have a GPS on my super cool smart-phone. Beautiful. British lady tells me what to do. New best friend. Sorry Taylor. Just type the address BAM I’m there. If I get lost? Make wrong turn? “Recalculating.”

Something important I learned about the GPS though. What you put into the GPS is where it takes you. You mess up one letter, or one number… “Getting to the nearest Walmart takes 12 hours? What?! GPS said it so, oh well.” What you put into the GPS is where it takes you. What you allow in your heart will determine the course of your life. What you put in your heart, what you allow in will effect where you go, what you do, what you say, how you act, the kind of girlfriend you are, the kind of boyfriend you are, the kind of coffee you drink… it effects everything. If you’re the kind of person who seeks attention, you will do nothing, spare no one to make sure the light is always on you. If you’re lonely, “Oh ho-hum.” Then you’ll marry the wrong guy, you’ll hang out with the wrong people. “Well at least I’m not alone.” You go to church and read the bible and tithe and it’s just this holy check-list for you, “Check-Check-Check! Ok God look at me! I’m awesome, now bless me!” So long as we go through that list every single week or every single week then God is going to bless us, but at the end of the day we realize, “I don’t hear God, I don’t have a relationship with God,” because it’s all about a to-do list and not about a relationship. In reality that list is all about you, it’s all about you. Or it’s all about me. “Do all these things in order for God to love me.” You’ll never see God. You won’t.

Going online, porn or whatever; talking to other women when you’re dating someone else, or talking to other men when you’re dating someone else… you’ll never experience true intimacy. You’ll blow up relationships, eventually marriages; blow up your kids even… because you put this stuff inside and expect that the direction of your life is going to take you towards Christ? You’re kidding yourself. You think dating is not like marriage, but in reality you are practicing married life, how you treat your girlfriend or boyfriend will be how you treat your husband or wife, and how you act as a girlfriend or boyfriend will be how you act as a husband or wife to a certain degree, because Practice does NOT make Perfect… Practice. Makes. Permanent. You practice treating people poorly it becomes harder to stop viewing them negatively. You practice dating around, it’s going to be hard to commit to one person. The decisions you make now influence how you will make decisions later. Make wise decisions now, don’t wait until tomorrow. If you treat your girlfriend or boyfriend poorly, if you flirt around while you’re dating someone else, it’ll be easy to ruin your home, and ruin your marriage when you’re older.

You might be a person who stuffs everything. “I don’t like dealing with conflict, stuff-stuff-stuff-stuff.” You’re going to end up doing something insane or crazy. Because you never talked about it or made light of an important issue, or just got it out, so you stuff-stuff-stuff-stuff and you could end up having an affair… sleep with your boyfriend’s friend or a co-worker because you never talked about it, just stuffed it.

Proverbs 27:19 says:
 ¹⁹ As a face is reflected in water, 
      so the heart reflects the real person.

We wear our hearts on our sleeves. You spend a short amount of time with someone, you can sort of tell the direction of their life and what their about.

I want to share what we can do in response to understanding how much weight our hearts carry in terms of the direction of our lives. The Bible has a plethora of advice, I’ll give you two, ‘cause they’re big ones, two suggestions out of Proverbs.

First one, is in verse 23 of Proverbs 4.

“Guard your heart.”

In so many ways you can refer this to sports; basketball, footballs, soccer, etc. A goalie keeping the ball from getting into the net, linebackers protecting the quarterback from opposition, basketball players blocking the point guard from driving it in or putting the ball in the hoop… the whole goal of the linebacker or goalie or whatever is to make sure that the ball does not get through, and they are intense about it. What if we, with the same fervor and intensity, guarded our hearts from things like jealousy and selfishness and prejudice?  

The word in Hebrew for guard is “Mishmar.” The word “Guard” is used throughout Proverbs but this is the only time, the prefix of it is only used once in Proverbs. While it is super important to guard things on the outside, to keep things on the outside from coming in… the other part of that passage, of that word, is that it’s like a prison guard. The prison guard’s number one objective is to make sure the criminals do not make it out and harm the other people.

We have that inside of us, that sin nature that is evil. People that say mankind is good? They are liars. Mankind is not good. We have that thing inside of us that causes us to go the opposite direction of where we’re supposed to go. What the passage is saying is that we’ve got some in our lives as a result of being separated by Christ [and if we don’t have a relationship with Christ we don’t understand this, we may feel it but we won’t understand it without Jesus]. We have this thing inside of us that is keeping us from doing the things that we don’t want to do. Scripture is saying, “You investing a lot of time and energy into keeping things on the outside from coming in, which is good, but you’re not paying enough attention to what’s inside already!” Because even the best point guards, and goalies, let people slip by and put the ball in the hoop, or the net.

We’ve got stuff in our lives, baggage… We’ve got to not only keep things on the outside from invading the inside, we have to guard what’s on the inside because it’s going to get out and blow people up. We know what it’s like because we can see the trail of dead we have caused… past relationships, friends, people… behind us, our past and our present, as a result of us not guarding our heart.

There is a prevalent thought in our world today, “Trust your heart.” “What you put in your life, if you put positive in your heart then out will pour positive.” You are your own reality, you are in charge of your own heart, your heart is really good, and great and this and that but that is a lie. That is a bunch of people trying to figure out the meaning to life without Christ, because the Bible says [Proverbs 28:26], “Trusting one’s own heart is foolish, but those who walk in wisdom are safe.”

If you are a person that has adopted the idea that the heart is good, that trusting the heart; the Bible says that it’s foolish. The world likes to do that because they want to push God out.

Because the heart will tell a young couple or any couple, regardless of how long they have dated, to follow their heart, regardless of where it will lead. That sex before marriage is okay, etc. It will tell guys or girls that cheating is okay. “Oh, but he looooooooves me.” “We’re going to get married anyway.” Bull. Unacceptable. Our hearts are evil. If you ever watched a three-year-old with a toy and another three-year-old kid wants that toy, you’ve seen the toyless-kid hit the other three-year-old and take the toy so fast it’ll make your head spin. You can’t necessarily blame the parents for that one, “Oh what terrible parents.” That is inside of us. If you trust your heart then you’ll be doing that stuff as an adult, and maybe you have. The Bible says Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust the Lord, with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make light paths for your feet.” Trust the Lord, don’t trust yourself. Trust Him with everything you are, with your heart, with the thing that effects everything, Trust Him. Lean not on what you think is the right thing, because it always goes bad. In everything you say and in everything you do, in every action you are contemplating, acknowledge Him. He will direct your paths, He will make them straight.

It says this. Stop Depending on yourself, start trusting God. Stop reading “Self-Help” books, and just trust God. Stop listening to people who say “Trust your heart,” and listen solely to what God says. I want to list some great scripture, and I encourage you to read it entirety  and even more so explore it further and learn more about each passage [actually, just read all of Proverbs (actually, just read the entire Bible)].

Proverbs 3:11-13
¹¹ My child, don’t reject the LORD’s discipline, 
      and don’t be upset when he corrects you. 
 ¹² For the LORD corrects those he loves, 
      just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights.
 ¹³ Joyful is the person who finds wisdom, 
      the one who gains understanding. 

Proverbs 6:21-23
 ²¹ Keep their words always in your heart. 
      Tie them around your neck. 
 ²² When you walk, their counsel will lead you. 
      When you sleep, they will protect you. 
      When you wake up, they will advise you. 
 ²³ For their command is a lamp 
      and their instruction a light; 
   their corrective discipline 
      is the way to life.

Proverbs 20:5
 ⁵ Though good advice lies deep within the heart, 
      a person with understanding will draw it out.

Proverbs 22:5
⁵ Corrupt people walk a thorny, treacherous road; 
      whoever values life will avoid it.

Proverbs 16:17
 ¹⁷ The path of the virtuous leads away from evil; 
      whoever follows that path is safe.

Proverbs 3:5-6
“Trust the Lord, with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make light paths for your feet.”

And a great first step is reading your Bible, not just reading it because it’s important, or reading it because you feel guilty, or reading it because it’s what you’ve always done, but reading it and living out the principles out of obedience to Christ, because you love Him. Because the more you read it and the more you pray and the more you let it become a pivotal part of your life, the more you fall in love with Him. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. You treasure wisdom, you treasure your relationship, there will be a significant difference in your life. If you want to see dynamic things happen in your life, if you want to see yourself move mountains, if you want to see great and mighty things, it will happen as a result of the posture of your heart being lined up with a righteous and holy and amazing God, and choosing not to live the way the heart instinctively and initially leads you, but choosing to be obedient. I said it last post, Obedience is God’s Love Language. God will Love us no matter what, but when we are obedient to Him, we show God that we love Him. No amount of my posting blog posts and no amount of “Love Never Gives Up,” and no amount of talking about how good God is will prove that we love Him if we aren’t trusting God with the direction of our lives and trusting God with our hearts and pursuing a life that reflects His teachings, a life that reflects His Word, a life that reflects God’s Heart. We need to recognize that we are inherently evil and that our heart is not to be trusted by any means. We need to admit that, and align ourselves with what God wants and go where He wants us to go and as a result of pursuing that, we will find life and that is when the curse of our hearts become a reality that says, “I am going to rest in the will of God. Because His will be done.”

Live out Proverbs 4:23, Guard your heart.
Live out Proverbs 3:5, Trust in the Lord with all your heart.