A reader's response: "After all this time, why am I still struggling to live from my new heart?"

A reader's reaction to my recent post, "Why Do Your Best Is Exactly What the Enemy Wants."  Many of you will find her honesty refreshing:

Jim, thank you for what you said in this newsletter. This speaks to part of my struggle. I've been struggling with circumstances lately that have made me feel really bad about my seeming lack of faith. I tried it for 7 years in the system and left. When I found people online showing me better answers, I left the system full of hope at the time.

Now 5 years later, I'm realizing I don't 'get' living IN Christ much better than I ever did. Oh, sure I can talk a good talk about it, but I'm not doing so well at actually walking it. I think what you speak of, learning to live from the new heart, is still a hindrance to many people because we don't believe, deep down, that God really, truly loves us, accepts us, and thinks well of us.

I'm not sure how much time this is supposed to take. You'd think after 5 years I'd 'get it' better, and I've even had other 'outside the box' Christians imply such to me. I'm not sure what the trick is to 'getting it' that God loves and accepts me, but I haven't found the key yet.

Please understand I'm not looking for advice or tips on how to 'get it.' I think I've already heard it all. I guess I just wanted to tell you this because you're a fellow introvert and you do get that. And as an introvert, you're not likely to take a "just do it" fix to a heart problem. Maybe there's some conversation out there to be had on this... maybe I'm not the only one...

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Note:  I'll have more to say later on why I think it's so hard to live from our new hearts and what the nature of that battle is.

Are you costume jewelry or tarnished silver?

As Dwight Edwards, author of Revolution Within suggests,

Costume jewelry is essentially worthless metal covered with an attractive coating.  So many believers see themselves in that way - sinners through and through, yet covered by the blood of Christ...

Tarnished silver is a much truer image of who we are after conversion. 

In "good and noble heart" vernacular, the Christian's heart or true tendency is pure and untainted now, the old diseased heart having been removed and replaced by a completely radiant heart containing no trace elements of sin. 

That noble heart may be surrounded by a tarnished layer called, "the flesh" - sinful residual programming leftover even after our old heart was removed; but that tarnish does not penetrate to the level of the new heart.  Why? Because your new heart [unblemished silver] is no longer compatible with sin [tarnish].  In fact, your heart propels sin away from it.  The unfiltered radiant wattage of your new heart dispels the darkness of the flesh.  ["Light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it, right?]

Related posts:

Video:  "THE PRONE TO WANDER MYTH."

Blog:  "Your Heart Is Not A Ship Off-Course."

Blog:  "Sin Is No Longer A Heart Issue."

Your heart is more faithful than you think.

On another forum, I recently posed the question:  "As a Christian, do you believe your heart is still 'prone to wander?"  -- still in danger of being unfaithful to God, in other words.

Reader:
"Yes - by experiance I do believe that although I have a new heart, my old man battles against it.  Therefore Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.  I believe that it is a constant choice to offer my heart up to God. That HE might take and seal it afresh and anew for the courts above.  If my heart was not prone to wander I believe that I  would not have to choose this day who to serve."

Jim:
When God gave you a new heart, why would he give you one that was still prone to wander?  Wouldn't that leave us exactly where we were before?  It would serve him better to give us a heart that was now steadfast and faithful to him.  Otherwise, that "changed heart" or new creation really isn't all that changed. 

You might be surprised to learn that it's not your new heart that wanders -- it's your flesh; and in fact Paul says your flesh no longer represents the true you.  You can still sin, or course; but your new heart no longer wants to.  Your heart/will is already dedicated to His will because Jesus actually replaced that wandering heart with his own heart and purity.

Although your flesh is at war with the Spirit, your heart is not.  This actually isn't a new message at all:  It's the classic Christian doctrine of "regeneration."  In my book, I point out folks from Martin Luther to J.I. Packer who talk about this surprising biblical truth.

We no longer have to daily recommit our heart out of fear that it will wander off.  Jesus didn't have to do that.  He worshipped God with all his heart certainly, but didn't feel anxious about having to constantly renew his faithfulness to God.  His DNA is now in your heart.

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[Note:  As we talked more, the other person and I seemed to be tracking more together; yet I realized that there's often the acknowledgement of a new heart without understanding the quite radical implications of that new identity.   We often want to cling to the dirt in our lives far more than we want to celebrate the radical goodness Jesus has given us.]

Video: "THE PRONE TO WANDER MYTH"

I just finished producing this video.  The video exposes one of the most damaging myths in the Church today.

New e-book: "ENOUGH IS NEVER ENOUGH"

I've just published this free e-book, "ENOUGH IS NEVER ENOUGH -- How spiritual abuse sabotages the heart."  Feel free to download and share. 

You can also leave a comment by clicking, "Post a Comment" below.

E-book - "ENOUGH IS NEVER ENOUGH - How spiritual abuse sabotages the heart" - by Jim Robbins

Sherpa carrying load photo:
Courtesy of PaulPrescott: paulprescott.com/

Update on Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 4:18PM by Jim Robbins

Note:  Once you download the e-book, or open it in your reader, the clarity improves quite a bit.  What you see on screen here is the preview version, which lacks a bit of sharpness. 

Books I recommend

The following books take the idea of the Christian's good heart seriously. 
I highly recommend them:

by Larry Crabb
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by Dwight Edwards
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by Andrew Farley
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by Stone & Smith

What books do you recommend that take the Christian's good heart seriously? [Post a comment below.]

Related posts:

"How to Shame a Christian"  - video

"As the heart goes, so goes a life."

Video - KINGDOM OF NOBLES

[This is a new video I just finished producing.] 

You were born into nobility. 

Podcast - Calling Series -"Mystery" -- guest Gary Barkalow joins Jim

Calling Series - part 2- "Mystery"

Guest Gary Barkalow (www.thenobleheart.com) joins Jim again. Confusion is a normal part of the journey.  How do we walk with God so that we don’t conclude:  “God isn’t speaking to me,”  or “I must be blowing it.”?

[Also available on iTunes.]

Related posts:

Calling Series - part one -"Orientation."

'MISLEADING OURSELVES' - listen now- with guest Andrew Farley

Andrew Farley, author of The Naked Gospel, joined me again to talk about the misleading catch-phrases Christians use that end up leading them away from their new and good hearts. 

We also address that sticky passage in the Lord's Prayer that says, "If you don't forgive others...neither will your Father forgive you."  But wait a minute, aren't we already and fully forgiven?  How do we reconcile other passages on our completed forgiveness with this passage that follows the Lord's Prayer?

www.thenakedgospel.com