Let me ask you a question: Where is your heart? I hope you can stop, take a few minutes and honestly answer that question. The location and direction of the heart is of utmost importance. If you know where your heart is and what it is striving towards then you can very easily discern what is most important to you.
The heart is fickle. It can easily change direction and because our heart is the very center of our being when it changes direction our thoughts and actions will soon follow it. An unguarded heart is at danger for chasing any passion or idea that it comes across. With no anchor and no solid foundation the unleashed heart will stray into troublesome waters every time the wind changes direction.
When we follow any and every whim of the heart we open ourselves up to addiction, depression, infidelity, lying, cheating, anxiety, indebtedness violence and foolishness on a grand scale. Why is this? Why is it that our hearts can so easily get us into trouble? God’s Word says:
The heart is more deceitful than all else
And is desperately sick;
Who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9 NASB)
Not even the wise prophet Jeremiah could understand his own heart. He rightly identified the heart as “desperately sick” and “deceitful” and we can trace that sickness back to one word. That word is “Sin”, with a capital S. Sin is the infection that we chose when the first of our kind (Adam and Eve) decided to rebel against God and try to do things in our own way. Instead of embracing God’s protection, love, blessings and fellowship we chose “I”. We chose selfishness. We decided that we knew better than God and would henceforth make our own decisions apart from Him. And because God values our free will He let us make that decision and the consequences that followed it.
One of the hardest things about the gospel message is that the bad news comes before the good news. Many have rejected the good news of the gospel because they just couldn’t get past the first part, the bad news, that we all are sick with Sin and that our hearts are desperately wicked. No one wants to hear that. But deep down, we know it to be true and those who desire to overcome that sickness and be cured from Sin’s grasp must cry out to Jesus as savior and Lord. In other words we must undo, each of us individually, the decision that Adam and Eve made. Instead of running from God and deciding to go our own way we must run to God and acknowledge that He is the only way.
We must decide to leash our hearts to God. We must choose Him. Although He seeks each and every one of us out individually, by name, He will never force us to choose Him. He calls, He waits, He is patient and kind and His mercy endures. But if, at the end of our lives, we have not chosen Him then we will be lost forever and eternally separated from Him in a place reserved for the Devil and his angels.
What you have chosen? Where is your heart and what direction is it headed? Is loving God and living a life based on His Word and His truth foremost in your life or have you chosen the god of “self” instead? If you are reading this then it is not too late to change direction. It is not too late for you to decide to leash your heart to the God who loves you and has the best possible plan for your life. Choose love. Choose freedom. Choose wisdom and peace. Choose the Lord God Almighty.