Your Daily Devotional for October 14, 2006

 

October 14, 2006

 

 

Cleaning Out Our Heart

by Dr. Paul Chappell

 

 

“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.”

 

Matthew 5:8

 

When my family first moved to the Antelope Valley, we visited a certain Mexican restaurant for the first time. As soon as we got in the door, I noticed that it was very dark. I even commented to the waitress that it seemed awfully dark. I will never forget her response. She said, “Don’t worry, your eyes will adjust.” Sometimes our eyes and our hearts adjust to the wrong things in life. We become desensitized to the sin of the world and our hearts become hardened to the things of God. Once we realize that we are wrong, what can we do to restore our fellowship with God?

 

We must first realize that the heart is wicked. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked…” Our “gut feeling” usually isn’t right, so when we have that gut feeling, we should take it to the Word of God and compare it to God’s principles.

 

We have to be very careful that we do not deceive ourselves into thinking that everything is fine. We may sing in the choir, teach a Sunday school class, or even serve as an usher, but we can still have a heart that isn’t right with God.

 

The next thing that we need to do is to put our hearts on trial before God. Psalm 139:23 says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts.” Ask the Lord to bring to mind any unconfessed sin that you might have committed. I’m sure if we just took a guess at what sin might be in our lives, the Lord would show us things that he wants us to change.

 

Next, ask the Lord to change your heart. God is in the heart-changing business and He wants to change your heart back to sweet fellowship with Him. There is nothing like the feeling of being able to pillow your head at night, knowing that your heart is pure before the Lord.

 

When you come to the place of renewed fellowship with God, guard your heart. The devil is so subtle in trying to change our hearts. He is using music, television, books, magazines, billboards, and many other venues just for this purpose. We as Christians need to be so careful not to pollute the temple of God with sinful things.

 

When the movie “It’s A Wonderful Life” first came out nearly fifty years ago, it was not well accepted by the media industry for a few of the words it contained. It contained the words jerk, lousy, incompetent, and garlic-eater. The media didn’t want the youth of America to begin saying these words. Hasn’t a lot changed in just fifty short years?

 

Sometimes a critical attitude comes into a person’s heart, and it will continue to replay in the mind until the heart becomes desensitized to this sin and becomes hardened toward the things of God. We think we’re okay because we are in the choir or teaching Sunday school, but really our hearts have grown cold to God’s Word. We all need to stop and reevaluate our hearts. Have you wandered away from God? Is there anything your heart has wrongfully adjusted to or become desensitized to?  Does your heart need to be cleaned out? I hope that you will take these principles and apply them to your life today!

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