SPIRITUAL HEART CHECK-UP (2)

“Let us SEARCH OUT and EXAMINE our ways, and turn back to the Lord” – Lam.3: 40

Heart Transformation is enriched by genuine SPIRITUAL HEART CHECK-UP: “Let us SEARCH OUT and EXAMINE our ways, and turn back to the Lord. Let us lift up our HEARTS and HANDS to God in heaven” (Lam.3: 40-41). The New American Standard Version says: “Let us EXAMINE and PROBE our ways, and let us return to the Lord” (v.40). We’re still meditating on the significance of examining our ways, which begins with assessing the state of our hearts. This Scripture text highlights the steps to receiving pardon of our sins from the God of Compassion and Mercy: (a) Examine our ways; (b) Turn again to the Lord; (c) Lift up our HEARTS – in fervent prayer and supplication for mercy; (d) Lift up our HANDS to “God in heaven” – in solemn promise to be His, binding ourselves in a covenant to be the Lord's only. In essence, we’re to put our heart on our hand, and offer it to God!

So much goes wrong in the world because people choose to ignore the truth and have turned their backs on God. The devil is loose on earth, plundering all around, wallowing in and spreading hatred, death and destruction. We cannot sit passively at ease in Zion accepting whatever Satan is up to. The time has come for us to rise up and claim the world for Jesus. Satan should have no foothold in us. Our Lord said: “The ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me” (Jh.14:30b). We should turn from every sinful way and the errors that easily beset us: “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb.12: 1b-2a). It’s time, by the Blood of Jesus, to expose and expel every sin that tries to lock in our hearts: carnality, deceit, lies, hatred, selfishness, and pride.

In conducting a spiritual HEART CHECK-UP, there are many relevant questions to ask. These are meant to surface sin in our lives; not to make us feel condemned but to open an avenue in which the Holy Spirit can reveal sin and then work His miraculous power. God desires and demands an intimate relationship with us, but unconfessed sin can block that intimacy, constituting a barrier between us and Him. Here are few of several questions to attend to:

How aligned are my thoughts, attitudes, conversations, and behaviour with God’s Word? 

How much have I held on to anger, bitterness, viciousness, or being mean-spirited? 

To what extent am I throwing off all the sins that hinder – all besetting sins? 

How much am I walking with God and spreading the fragrance of His Glory?

Are there strongholds in my life that I have not been willing to surrender?

Our ultimate goal is to live a Life in Christ – to live for His Glory; but the beginning point is our Heart – confessing our sins and receiving forgiveness. That’s the wonder of the Cross.  We are never so lost that God will abandon us. He is waiting for us to return to Him, so we can walk with Him every single day. Once we’ve returned to God, we’re set on a new life in Christ, listening to Him through His Word, talking to Him in prayer, and reproducing disciples by sharing the gospel. Jesus wants our hearts. He came to transform us: to remove the hardened shell of sin and bitterness, the root of pride and self-righteousness, and shine His Light in and through us so that we can live anew in Him. We are admonished to “…not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Rom.12:2).