WEEK FOUR - DAY FOUR - GUARD YOUR HEART!

 "Were they ashamed because of the abomination they have done?  They were not even ashamed at all.  They did not even know how to blush."  Jeremiah 6:15

I think this is one of the things that bothers me most about our current society. We've lost all sense of shame.  There's nothing that's out of bounds any more, nothing that causes our very sophisticated and cosmopolitan world to blush---how terribly naive and gauche that would appear!  We're way past that!

Oh aren't we though!  My Daddy went to heaven in 1990 and if he were to suddenly appear in my living room and start scrolling through TV, he would be aghast!  Between the language and the sexual portrayals that are on any time through the day or night, he would be convinced that we had all lost our ever-loving minds and had abandoned any kind of even half-hearted obedience to God!  We have allowed ourselves to gradually, over a not-so-long period of time, become completely desensitized to things that we should not be watching or listening to.  Music, movies, books all contribute to our desensitization; and for young people, I believe video games to be the biggest culprit, immersing them in lifelike situations that are ultra-violent and immoral.  

God's desire for us is to live PURE lives, free of filth and corruption.  Proverbs 4:23 says, "Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life."  We MUST start being intentional about what is going into our eyes and our ears.  For what goes in, will come out.  We should desire our outflow to be full of life and truth, but when we immerse ourselves in environments of immorality we are not going to get those kinds of outpourings.  In Jeremiah 9:3-9 Jeremiah describes the people of Judah as liars, evil doers, who do not know God.  They can't trust each other because they are all so full of malice and deceit, "they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves committing iniquity."  Wouldn't you hate it if those things were said about you?  These are the attributes that angered God and caused Him to bring destruction against them.  

But the people of Judah didn't start out that way - they became that way because they didn't guard their hearts!  They didn't put up shields against the idolatory of their neighboring nations or against the self-sufficiency that had developed, causing them to break away from their dependency on the God who had rescued them and who had brought them to their promised land.  Their minds had wandered far from that God and had allowed their hearts to be compromised.

Where are our minds?  Where do our thoughts linger longest?  For our minds are the gateways to our hearts.  Where our minds take us is where our hearts will follow.  If we're dwelling on fantasies that take us away from reality, if we're spending unnecessary time contemplating our criticisms of others, if we're replaying scenes in our heads of hurtful words said to us and preparing the best-ever comeback ready to zing the next time we're given an opportunity to use it, then we're setting ourselves up for hearts that are covetous, critical, mean-spirited and altogether unlovely!  And if we're thinking of things that are immoral, lustful, or dishonorable, then we're preparing our hearts to follow with no ability to be shamed, let alone cheeks that remember how to blush.

When we are instructed to "take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ"  we are being told to take the first step in guarding our very fragile hearts.  My heart is guarded by the guarding of my thought life.  

And then we come to our words - one of the most bothersome verses in the Bible for a talker like me is Matthew 12:36, "I tell you that on the day of judgment people will have to account for every careless word they speak."  If we have allowed our hearts to become corrupt, then our mouths will follow suit.  As we read in Luke 6:45 "A good man produces good out of the good storeroom of his heart. An evil man produces evil out of the evil storeroom, for his mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart."  So while the mind guards the heart, the heart guards the mouth.  Profanity, gossip, disrespect, angry words are not reflective of the hearts that we are to have as Christ-followers.  If we find out mouths spewing words that do not reflect what we say is in our heart, we may need a good heart check!  Again, we need to keep a sensitivity to language and the words that we hear coming out of our mouths.  

So let's keep a little naivety, let's retain our ability to blush.  If we've gone too far and seen and heard too much, let's pray for God to allow our hearts to return to ones that are shocked by things that should shock, to be ashamed of things that should still be shameful.  

Oh Lord, cleanse us.  Remove from us everything that we have allowed to contaminate our hearts and strengthen us to recognize everything that is harmful to our hearts so that we don't allow it into our minds.  Remind us of Your call to us to lives of holiness and purity...for our good and for Your honor!