Expectations that kill the heart
Thursday, August 7, 2008 at 11:31AM One of my good friends said that because of the message he was hearing in church, he expected to sin regularly. Why is this?
Because the message of the church today may not, in fact, always be the message of Jesus. His offer is not simply "get forgiven -- go to heaven." Jesus' message is, "I will give you a new heart." -- Radiant, strong, inclined towards goodness ... and not towards sin. More to the point he says, "I will give you my own heart, removing the one that used to lead you into sickness, distrust and rebellion." Take my heart.
You can now expect holiness from your heart, the goodness and vitality of Jesus himself within you. And this gives you permission: to indulge your deepest desires -- for they are now untainted and noble. (Didn't God promise to "give you the desires of your heart?" How did he do that?) He gave you a new heart -- with fresh desires, some of which are unique only to your heart.
You can now expect to dream more earnestly.
Delight more relentlessly.
Resist your tempters more confidently.
Your heart is stronger and more noble than you think. Expect that.
Reader Comments (4)
Great post, Jim. I agree with you. How can our hearts be evil if God lives there? We've got to believe that we really are new creations with God’s very life in us. I really think the secret to living this new life is to learn how to live out of our good heart.
Jim,
Amen! Our hearts contain the Holy Spirit, beautiful, loving, precious. When we truly know this, and LIVE from our new hearts in Christ Jesus, because our new hearts are only GOOD, we can do good.
Right now, I'm learning to listen to my new heart, and live according to it, and ignore my old heart, which is not me. By Papa's grace, bit-by-bit, and sometimes even leap-by-leap, I'm discerning better, hearing my Good heart better, and living more-and-more only from my Good heart. It's my greatest prayer to continue growing in this. And, quite honestly, because I know Papa is Faithful, as He says, He completes what He finishes. So, when I die a wrinkly 90+ year old woman...my mind can only fathom, the closeness and consistancy to my Good heart I'll be living! Let's ALL live in this Hope!
~Amy :)
www.myspace.com/amyinsurprise
Jim,
I decided to finally create my own Blog-page! I hope you will come visit "me," add me to your Blogroll, read my entries and leave messages! Oh, and I added your Blog to my Blogroll. :)
http://amyiswalkinginthespirit.blogspot.com/
~Amy :)
Hi Jim,
Your friend's story is familiar. I have received strange messages in churches and I guess it was a gift from God that I didn't take in a bunch of them. I took in enough of them, though.
When I heard messages like that, I used to think, well, the pastor can't be talking to me. I don't do stuff like that. Then I would interact with other people in the congregation and THEIR expectation of me is that I would commit a sin at any second. So I started questioning myself. What am I doing that people treat me like that? There must be something wrong with me. They would treat me with such suspicion. So, I would try to figure it out and couldn't.
From reading your entry, what I now think is that their expectations of themselves were projected upon me. The sweeter and gentler I was, the more suspicion was cast upon me. People who really got to know me understood my heart, but the others were stuck in awful messages and missed out on me and others who are just as we seem to be. They also missed out on themselves. How sad. Someone said to me once, that satan does his best work in churches. I am inclined to agree.
Thank you for the reminder that God gives us the desires of our heart. Always good to remember. :0)
Blessings all around!
Meredith