Post by MIRIAM JACOB on Oct 18, 2007 9:30:14 GMT -5
WELLSPRING OF LIFE
Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life
(Prov. 4:23, NIV).
God’s Word admonishes us, above all else, to guard our hearts. Why? Because the heart—whether of an individual or of a nation—is “the wellspring of life.” Life flows from a heart that is tender toward God and others; it ceases to flow when the heart is hardened and cares only for self. When we allow ourselves to take what seems to be the easy way, to “go with the flow” and spend our short time here on earth serving only ourselves, our hearts will continue to grow harder and more self-absorbed—and the results cannot be good.
God laid it out about as clear as it can get when He said, “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life…” (Deut. 30:19, emphasis added). And that’s what God’s higher purpose for all of us, regardless of vocation/avocation, is about, and especially so for those of us who have been called as writers, speakers, preachers, or teachers to communicate God’s Word to others. It is a call to God’s people to respond to His higher purpose for our lives, which is to guard our hearts against becoming hard and self-centered, to refuse to get caught up in the “me-first” culture of our day, to adopt the selfless cry of John the Baptist: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30)—and to heed the very words of God Himself: “Choose life!” For if we, as believers in and followers of Jesus Christ, do not choose to take a stand for life—real life, selfless life, eternal life—instead of death, then there is no one left to stem the tide of curses that has already begun to sweep across our beloved country.
The collective heart of a nation reflects the individual hearts of its citizens. This is true, whether the nation is America , Israel , Canada , Germany , France , Iran , Nigeria , El Salvador , or North Korea . It is also true that the Bible describes the heart, prior to repentance and regeneration by God, as “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jer. 17:9). How then, can we expect those whose hearts are still in that deceitful, desperately wicked state to choose life and blessing, rather than death and cursing?
It is therefore up to us, those who have been born again by the very Spirit of God and given a heart of flesh to replace the “stony heart” described in Ezekiel 11:19, to respond to God’s higher calling and purpose of choosing life over death—and to set the standard by modeling it to those who may very well hate and persecute us for doing so.
No easy task—and no small one—but necessary nonetheless. More than that, it is a costly calling. Choosing to take a stand for life in the face of a culture of death may very well cost us everything. And yet it is the very reason we are here on this earth today. It’s not about royalties or ratings or best-seller lists; it’s about maintaining tender and responsive hearts toward God. Regardless of our station or position in life, our geographic location, our age, gender, talents or abilities, we are here for one purpose: To answer God’s higher call to live beyond ourselves and to model a you-first life in a me-first world.
Hearts of flesh that are tender toward God and toward others are the very wellsprings of the life and blessing so desperately needed by a hard-hearted world that walks in darkness under the curse of death—a world of which we were once a part, and for which our beloved Savior died.
***Adapted from my Summer 2008 release from New Hope Publishers, BEYOND ME: Living a You-First Life in a Me-First World, © Kathi Macias 2008.
(C) KATHI MACIAS,
www.kathimacias.com
Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life
(Prov. 4:23, NIV).
God’s Word admonishes us, above all else, to guard our hearts. Why? Because the heart—whether of an individual or of a nation—is “the wellspring of life.” Life flows from a heart that is tender toward God and others; it ceases to flow when the heart is hardened and cares only for self. When we allow ourselves to take what seems to be the easy way, to “go with the flow” and spend our short time here on earth serving only ourselves, our hearts will continue to grow harder and more self-absorbed—and the results cannot be good.
God laid it out about as clear as it can get when He said, “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life…” (Deut. 30:19, emphasis added). And that’s what God’s higher purpose for all of us, regardless of vocation/avocation, is about, and especially so for those of us who have been called as writers, speakers, preachers, or teachers to communicate God’s Word to others. It is a call to God’s people to respond to His higher purpose for our lives, which is to guard our hearts against becoming hard and self-centered, to refuse to get caught up in the “me-first” culture of our day, to adopt the selfless cry of John the Baptist: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30)—and to heed the very words of God Himself: “Choose life!” For if we, as believers in and followers of Jesus Christ, do not choose to take a stand for life—real life, selfless life, eternal life—instead of death, then there is no one left to stem the tide of curses that has already begun to sweep across our beloved country.
The collective heart of a nation reflects the individual hearts of its citizens. This is true, whether the nation is America , Israel , Canada , Germany , France , Iran , Nigeria , El Salvador , or North Korea . It is also true that the Bible describes the heart, prior to repentance and regeneration by God, as “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jer. 17:9). How then, can we expect those whose hearts are still in that deceitful, desperately wicked state to choose life and blessing, rather than death and cursing?
It is therefore up to us, those who have been born again by the very Spirit of God and given a heart of flesh to replace the “stony heart” described in Ezekiel 11:19, to respond to God’s higher calling and purpose of choosing life over death—and to set the standard by modeling it to those who may very well hate and persecute us for doing so.
No easy task—and no small one—but necessary nonetheless. More than that, it is a costly calling. Choosing to take a stand for life in the face of a culture of death may very well cost us everything. And yet it is the very reason we are here on this earth today. It’s not about royalties or ratings or best-seller lists; it’s about maintaining tender and responsive hearts toward God. Regardless of our station or position in life, our geographic location, our age, gender, talents or abilities, we are here for one purpose: To answer God’s higher call to live beyond ourselves and to model a you-first life in a me-first world.
Hearts of flesh that are tender toward God and toward others are the very wellsprings of the life and blessing so desperately needed by a hard-hearted world that walks in darkness under the curse of death—a world of which we were once a part, and for which our beloved Savior died.
***Adapted from my Summer 2008 release from New Hope Publishers, BEYOND ME: Living a You-First Life in a Me-First World, © Kathi Macias 2008.
(C) KATHI MACIAS,
www.kathimacias.com