GUARD YOUR HEART; YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT

By Rev Michael Benson Ajayi

   

 Mark 7:5, "There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man."

           The human heart is the center of the human consciousness; it is where creativity takes place. It is like an all-purpose processing plant or the central processing unit of a computer. Whatever information is received into the heart is processed, multiplied and results in a behavioral pattern. The heart is also the seat of wisdom. The information we constantly pay attention to, soon becomes truth to us resulting in our taking corresponding actions that soon becomes our character and results in a destiny either good or bad. We are the masters of our destinies.

          The relationship between human action and the spirit of God is like that which exists between the airplane pilot and the atmospheric wind. If the wind is strongly against an airplane, the pilot may abort a  flight except he or she is on a suicide mission. Pilots fly with the wind regardless of their mission (be it good or bad). God controls the wind. Jesus said in John 3:8 that “The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can't tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can't explain how people are born of the Spirit." What this means is that spiritual life is dynamic and beyond human control. The direction of the wind at any given time is determined by pressure variations in the atmosphere. Wind blows from a region of high pressure to that of a low pressure . Likewise, the pressures of life determine the dynamics of the human life. If we allow ourselves to be influenced by negative pressure, we would have no option but to yield by altering our value system to accommodate negativity.

          The scriptures says in  Prov 16:9 KJV “ A man's heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps” the word deviseth is the Hebrew word ‘chashab’ which means: to interpenetrate, weave, fabricate; think, regard, value, compute: meaning we have a role to play in fabricating the quality of life we desire to live, through our value system. In a bid to be up to date and relevant sometimes we embrace certain schools of thought which pressurizes us into changing our value system in other to fit into their infinitesimal ‘world’. A case in point is that of Samson , God knew he was going to be destroyed by Delilah and yet allowed him because he had embraced the value system of the Philistine thus violating  the terms of His covenant with God  ( Judges13:3-6,14:3-4). Once the room for a temptation is created by a person, God has no option but to allow it come to pass. That’s why Jesus while teaching the disciples to pray said in Matt 6:13(Mssg Bible)  “Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil. You're in charge!” Samson thought he had everything under control. That kind of thinking is symptomatic of a backsliding heart described in Prov 14:14 NKJV “The backslider in heart will be filled with his own ways,..”

          Samson spent more time with the philistines and derived more pleasure from them than from God’s people. Church became boring to him.Boredom is a function of one's passion and choice (psalm 77:2). We chose to be either excited or bored and disinterest in God’s people results in family crisis and makes us vulnerable to wastage.Married folks who have no interest in church soon loose interest in each other. Persons with similar value systems( good or bad) are attractive to each other and eventually marry each other for good or bad . 

            What we tolerate, we soon celebrate and eventually replicate. It is against this backdrop that we should be very selective about what we receive as life’s principles . Matt 5:8 AMP says

“Blessed (happy, enviably fortunate, and spiritually prosperous — possessing the happiness produced by the experience of God's favor and especially conditioned by the revelation of His grace, regardless of their outward conditions) are the pure in heart, for they shall see God!

   “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life” ( Prov 4:23).  

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Email. michaelbensonajayi@gmail.com