MATTERS OF THE HEART

In Proverbs 4:23, we read the following words.

“Keep your heart with all diligence. For from it are the issues of life.”

Having served in the role of a pastoral counselor the past 25 years, I have been exposed to literally thousands of people who have made literally thousands of life-changing decisions; both positive and negative.

Sadly, a myriad of these people have made a myriad of life-changing decisions which had their origins in what scripture refers to as “the heart.”

There is a profound passage in the Old Testament which reads,

“The heart is deceitful in all things, and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)

Ain’t it the truth!

In the past I wrote a blog related to a couple of well-known ministers with the initials JS and JB; both members of the same denomination. God knows their “decisions of the heart” changed the course of their lives, and the lives of others. In spite of their “fall from grace” both ministers are still on television, though their ‘following’ has ebbed a bit, and they are all but forgotten by the majority of Americans.

I don’t mind telling you that it is my thesis that “the heart will mess you up.” People are so often intent on “doing their own thing” and continuing to do their own thing; in spite of the consequences.

Just today I interacted with a lovely young lady by email who is engaged in ministry in California. And responding to something she wrote, I mentioned a counter-thesis.

“I have served in the pastoral counseling ministry for 25 years and was NEVER involved in an affair, nor charged with the smallest innuendo or indescretion. The difference between me and the others who are faithful to their spouses and ministries is simple. We made an IRREVOCABLE DECISION from the beginning to always be faithful to God, our wives and the people whom the Lord set in our pathways.

Apparently, the believers and unbelievers, living and dead who have given into lust and infidelity never made such an irrevocable decision.”

(and)

“Speaking of the heart, the heart of our first parents, Adam and Eve, certainly took them down the road towards hell, and deprived them of the perfect environment, and the personal presence and walk with God which He first established for them to enjoy.”

Now obviously, if a man or woman expresses what they might describe as an irrevocable decision to avoid sin, but ultimately embraces it…it cannot be said to have been irrevocable in the first place.

The heart of a man. The will of a man. While every one of us are frail, fickle human beings, I have chosen the latter of the two possibilities.

by William McDonald. Excerpt from (Mc)Donald's Daily Diary. Vol. 87. Copyright pending

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