The following is an excerpt from my upcoming book,
Recover Your Good Heart:
(excerpt)
Recently, I asked my good friend, John, a question: “What have you been told about your heart – even after you became a Christian." In other words, was John hearing a message that he wasn’t supposed to trust his heart, that there was largely sin and rebellion at the core of his nature? Was the underlying message from the pulpit that he was never doing enough for God and really didn't want to do God's will anyway? Or was John hearing a more positive message about his heart, especially after becoming a believer in Jesus?
Here’s what John said:
"In my 28 years as a Christian, I have never experienced a celebration of [the following] truths from Romans 8: … Because of Jesus Christ, we as Christians do not live according to the sinful nature (8:4), we do have our minds set on what the Holy Spirit desires (8:5), and we are not controlled by the sinful nature (8:9)! Our hearts are now good! Sin is no longer the biggest thing which is true about us!
As I look back at my years as a Christian, I am sorry to say that now I see clearly that I have been actually held back in my Christian walk, because I have been receiving the message that my heart is still bad, still wicked. As a result, my expectations for the "abundant life" of which Jesus spoke, have been nil! Because of what was said on Sunday mornings, I expected to sin regularly!"
(Did you notice in John’s response that the erroneous message he was hearing from pulpits actually sabotaged the work of Christ in him?)