“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”- Proverbs 4: 23
“As water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart.”- Proverbs 27: 19
In Chapter 2 (“The Battleground of the Gods”) of Gods at War, Pastor Kyle Idleman notes that our modern society tends to see personality more holistically. The ancient Hebrews had understood that all along, speaking of loving God with all your heart and soul and mind (Deuteronomy 6: 5). The Hebrews spoke of that unity as “the heart”. In Hebrew, the author notes, the word for heart means “the kernel of the nut”.
So when we think about our own hearts, are we dealing with our visible sins or what produces them- the source? Dealing with the source of our sin, Pastor Idleman observes, is a staggering commitment. Compounding that, the gods (idols) know that the heart is the battleground where the war is won or lost. For example, dealing with an anger problem by taking a deep breath and counting to ten illustrates dealing with a visible sin- helpful as that may be- rather than getting to the source. As the author states:
“It’s simply that the heart of the issue is an issue of the heart.”
Today’s question: Why is it imperative to deal with the source of the problem rather than just its visible manifestations? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “A spiritual arteriogram”
