Our feelings show what we Really believe

[GandalfTheWise]

28 minutes ago, Yowm said:

Yes, often there is a disconnect between our head and heart, but if our heart (feelings) is not informed by the knowledge of God's Word (in our head) it will drift into deceitful waters.

Jeremiah 17:9 KJVS
[9] The heart is deceitful above all things , and desperately wicked: who can know it?

 

For over 30 years as a Christian, I took this verse along with Gen 6:5 and 8:21 as being proof that the heart was not to be trusted and never thought about it anymore than that.

Perhaps 7 or 8 years ago, I ran a word study on "heart" throughout the Bible and was shocked at what I found.  There are several hundred times the word heart is used.  Here are a few that surprised me when I first seriously read them.

10 For wisdom will enter your heart,  and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.  Prov 2:10 NIV

Trust in the Lord with all your heart  and lean not on your own understanding;  Prov 3:5 NIV

Above all else, guard your heart,   for everything you do flows from it.  Prov 4:23 NIV

My shield is God Most High, who saves the upright in heart.  Ps 7:10 NIV

The one whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from their heart;  Ps 15:2 NIV

I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. Ps 16:7 NIV

Though you probe my heart, though you examine me at night and test me, you will find that I have planned no evil; my mouth has not transgressed. PS 17:3 NIV

Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord?   Who may stand in his holy place? 4 The one who has clean hands and a pure heart,  who does not trust in an idol   or swear by a false god.  Ps 24:3-4 NIV

A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.  Luke 6:45 NIV

But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop. Luke 8:15 NIV

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.  Matthew 5:8

28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” 29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” 32 “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.  Mark 12:28-34

8 But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,”[d] that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: 9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.  Romans 10:8-10 NIV

After reading through various lexicons and other references, I found that scripturally, heart often refers to our inner life, our thoughts, feelings, will, and volition.  Our western mindset of the mind being good and rational and the heart being wild uncontrolled sin and emotion is not the same as scriptural usage.   The word heart seems to be most often used to describe what a person is like inside.  As in Luke 6:45,  a good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.  My understanding is that in the same way that scripture speaks of those who are righteous and those who are unrighteous, the inner life (or heart) of people can be righteous or unrighteous.  As I see it, there are many verses in scripture describing the hearts of both the righteous and unrighteous.  With regards to forming a definitive doctrine about the heart, I think that several dozen if not a few hundred verses need to be considered and compared.  

I spent literally decades of my life treating verses such as Jer 17:9, Gen 6:5, and Gen 8:21 as the definitive descriptions of Christians rather than as descriptions of the unsaved and unrighteous.   As a Christian, I was rational (which appealed to the academic and scientist in me), always suppressing anything that might possibly be sin or the flesh, and basically trying to be a Mr. Spock from Star Trek to rationally understand, believe, and be accurate in all matters of truth and to make every decision in accordance with truth.

Over the past decade, God has been freeing me from that bondage.  I wasn't suppressing sin and the flesh in my life.  I was suppressing who God intended me to be.  I spent decades of my Christian life being more ashamed of who God made me to be than of confessing sins.  Those times that the person God created tried to come out, that I pushed it back down because no good thing could be in me.  Those times in my life where ministry seemed to naturally flow and I felt alive, I'd quickly panic that I was getting into the flesh and shut myself down.  God finally released me.  He stuck me in front of a mirror, showed me who He made me to be, and I left behind that caricature of a "good" Christian who was nothing more than a generic collection of gifts, talents, and time spent doing the right activities with the proper measure of control and reserve.

Over the past decade, I've seen more sins, addictions, compulsive behaviors, and more unhealthy spiritual and emotional behaviors drop from my life than I had in the previous 3 decades.  I've seen my ministering go from difficult labor to a natural outflow.  I've found that Christian living is enjoyable and natural.  I've found walking with God to be an adventure through the wilderness, not a dangerous minefield where I'm tasked with dragging heavy burdens according to a divine to-do list and schedule.  I used to walk the Christian life like painting by numbers and painstakingly worrying about crossing each line rather than being an artist learning how to actually create works of art.  I've seen God touch more people through me just being me in the past few years than in decades of carefully prepared lessons and teachings.  Life is now about just walking with God and seeing the cool stuff He does.  It is about living life as the unique individual God created me to be with my entire heart and being reflecting His glory in the way He created me to.

 

[Hidden In Him]

5 hours ago, GandalfTheWise said:

When someone makes us angry or frustrated, we should ask ourselves what is wrong inside of me that I am reacting that way.

 

31 minutes ago, Hidden In Him said:

I find He has to bring us ALL back to our childhood in a sense

This thread really has me thinking now. And I think it eventually also runs into deeper matters like bearing one's cross. By that, I mean this:

I've recently come face to face with my biggest hinderance in general to being used by God: My emotional side. As men go I am deeply emotional, and this comes out not only in things like irritation and anger but also in a need to be loved and appreciated. I have encountered some truly nasty opposition over the last year since getting involved in Christian Forums - really hateful stuff on occasion - and have realized my need to have people around me who can counter these emotional attacks with praise. I have even been considering the need to draw closer to the Lord Himself for such needs, so that He is able to supply whatever healing others may not be able to provide. I can come off as very aggressive on the surface (I am in ways), but underneath it all is a very loving and kind-hearted man who only wants to minister for the betterment of others, regardless of whether I am able to do so or not. 

What I'm saying is, the more we come to understand ourselves as we were made, the more we recognize our strengths and weaknesses acutely. And this makes things like bearing our cross and walking with Christ a little easier as well, because we have come face to face with what gets to us the most.  

Edited April 11, 2018 by Hidden In Him

[Blue Lulu]

I believe that we will be offended in this life, we will feel anger, but then we must overlook the offense.  We need to give grace and empathy to the offender and remember that we have our security in Christ not in what others think or do.  It is in those situations that we are to ask the Holy Spirit for help to extend that grace and empathy and He will do it.  (I am really not good at this but I am learning)

[Sower]

On 4/11/2018 at 11:39 AM, GandalfTheWise said:

For over 30 years as a Christian, I took this verse along with Gen 6:5 and 8:21 as being proof that the heart was not to be trusted and never thought about it anymore than that.

Perhaps 7 or 8 years ago, I ran a word study on "heart" throughout the Bible and was shocked at what I found.  There are several hundred times the word heart is used.  Here are a few that surprised me when I first seriously read them.

10 For wisdom will enter your heart,  and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.  Prov 2:10 NIV

Trust in the Lord with all your heart  and lean not on your own understanding;  Prov 3:5 NIV

Above all else, guard your heart,   for everything you do flows from it.  Prov 4:23 NIV

My shield is God Most High, who saves the upright in heart.  Ps 7:10 NIV

The one whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from their heart;  Ps 15:2 NIV

I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. Ps 16:7 NIV

Though you probe my heart, though you examine me at night and test me, you will find that I have planned no evil; my mouth has not transgressed. PS 17:3 NIV

Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord?   Who may stand in his holy place? 4 The one who has clean hands and a pure heart,  who does not trust in an idol   or swear by a false god.  Ps 24:3-4 NIV

A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.  Luke 6:45 NIV

But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop. Luke 8:15 NIV

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.  Matthew 5:8

28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” 29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” 32 “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.  Mark 12:28-34

8 But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,”[d] that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: 9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.  Romans 10:8-10 NIV

After reading through various lexicons and other references, I found that scripturally, heart often refers to our inner life, our thoughts, feelings, will, and volition.  Our western mindset of the mind being good and rational and the heart being wild uncontrolled sin and emotion is not the same as scriptural usage.   The word heart seems to be most often used to describe what a person is like inside.  As in Luke 6:45,  a good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.  My understanding is that in the same way that scripture speaks of those who are righteous and those who are unrighteous, the inner life (or heart) of people can be righteous or unrighteous.  As I see it, there are many verses in scripture describing the hearts of both the righteous and unrighteous.  With regards to forming a definitive doctrine about the heart, I think that several dozen if not a few hundred verses need to be considered and compared.  

I spent literally decades of my life treating verses such as Jer 17:9, Gen 6:5, and Gen 8:21 as the definitive descriptions of Christians rather than as descriptions of the unsaved and unrighteous.   As a Christian, I was rational (which appealed to the academic and scientist in me), always suppressing anything that might possibly be sin or the flesh, and basically trying to be a Mr. Spock from Star Trek to rationally understand, believe, and be accurate in all matters of truth and to make every decision in accordance with truth.

Over the past decade, God has been freeing me from that bondage.  I wasn't suppressing sin and the flesh in my life.  I was suppressing who God intended me to be.  I spent decades of my Christian life being more ashamed of who God made me to be than of confessing sins.  Those times that the person God created tried to come out, that I pushed it back down because no good thing could be in me.  Those times in my life where ministry seemed to naturally flow and I felt alive, I'd quickly panic that I was getting into the flesh and shut myself down.  God finally released me.  He stuck me in front of a mirror, showed me who He made me to be, and I left behind that caricature of a "good" Christian who was nothing more than a generic collection of gifts, talents, and time spent doing the right activities with the proper measure of control and reserve.

Over the past decade, I've seen more sins, addictions, compulsive behaviors, and more unhealthy spiritual and emotional behaviors drop from my life than I had in the previous 3 decades.  I've seen my ministering go from difficult labor to a natural outflow.  I've found that Christian living is enjoyable and natural.  I've found walking with God to be an adventure through the wilderness, not a dangerous minefield where I'm tasked with dragging heavy burdens according to a divine to-do list and schedule.  I used to walk the Christian life like painting by numbers and painstakingly worrying about crossing each line rather than being an artist learning how to actually create works of art.  I've seen God touch more people through me just being me in the past few years than in decades of carefully prepared lessons and teachings.  Life is now about just walking with God and seeing the cool stuff He does.  It is about living life as the unique individual God created me to be with my entire heart and being reflecting His glory in the way He created me to.

 

You got it.

1Jn 3:7  Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.   
WHAT!       You mean I'm not a little worm?

Edited April 15, 2018 by Gary Lee