“Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life.” (Pro 4:23 NASB)
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Readers,
This journal entry will include three songs. I selected these songs because they speak to the very heart of what I want to share with you. As you read please take a moment to listen to each song. The Lord wants to speak to your heart. He often speaks His heart to us by way of a song.
I had shared the story of the four poplar trees that Betty and I planted a few years ago. Three of the trees grew tall and strong. But one of the four trees couldn’t make it. It remained small and weak. Even after I transplanted it, I still could not get it to grow. It was too late. The little tree was simply too stunted and weak to make it.
The reason I transplanted the little tree hoping that it would help it grow was because of some research. What I found is that a poplar should never be planted in clay. It needs good soil and plenty of sunshine to grow. Clay keeps water from reaching the roots. That was why our little poplar tree could not survive.
Through this venture with the poplar trees I gained a bit of instruction. In the Bible, the term clay is often symbolic of a troubled life or of a hardened heart. David speaks to this:
“I waited patiently for the LORD; and He inclined to me and heard my cry. He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm.
“He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; many will see and fear and will trust in the LORD. How blessed is the man who has made the LORD his trust, and has not turned to the proud, nor to those who lapse into falsehood.” (Psa 40:1-4 NASB)
Did you catch it? The Lord brought David out of the miry clay of destructive surroundings. He then settled David’s feet firmly on the Rock of His salvation. Notice what David said:
- God blesses the man who makes the Lord his trust and has not turned to the proud.
- And, God blesses the man who does not lapse into falsehood.
Turning to the proud and living in falsehood are very much intertwined. They both bring nothing but troubles into a believer’s life. Before I say any more take a moment to listen to my first song. It is based on Psalm 40, ‘He Brought Me Out.’
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The Miry clay of life…
Israel was unable to continue in the blessings of the Lord because of these things. She became proud in heart, thinking the Lord had to bless her because she was descended from Abraham. It was from this heart of pride that Israel took up a life of falsehood.
One of the greatest signs of a hardened heart is self-righteousness. The Pharisees were so bound up in religious pride, in their own self-righteousness and self-importance, that their whole world had become a world of falsehood. They were so blinded by self-righteousness that they were unable to recognize who Jesus really was.
What does the Bible have to say about this issue of our heart? Listen carefully to Proverbs 4:20-23 –
“My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your sight; keep them in the midst of your heart. For they are life to those who find them and health to all their body. Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.” (Pro 4:20-23 NASB)
The Hebrew word for springs speaks of determinations, forces, boundaries, etc. What is in our heart determines the boundries of our life.
It is so important to understand this. An uncontrolled heart is open ground for the enemy to sow seeds of sinfulness and destructions. Satan’s goal is to create such despair in our lives that repair seems impossible.
The Bible gives us the picture of the heart that is filled with thorns and thistles. This description is also given to the Christ-rejecting Israel:
“I passed by the field of the [spiritual] sluggard and by the vineyard of the man lacking sense, and behold, it was completely overgrown with thistles; its surface was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down.
“When I saw, I reflected upon it; I looked, and received instruction. ‘A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, then your poverty will come as a robber And your want like an armed man.” (Pro 24:30-34 NASB)
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What is the answer?
The answer is that we need a watchman over our hearts. We don’t do a very good job on our own.
Here is the beginning place – If you knew that God could give you a brand new heart and a total make over of Life, would you want it?
Sure you would. And this is the promise of the new covenant.
When Peter said to the Hebrew people, “For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself”, the people knew exactly what Peter was speaking of.
The promise of a new heart and of a watchman for their hearts was written throughout the Old Testament, from Moses and on to the prophets. Let’s pick up the trail beginning with Moses, then Ezekiel, and finally Jeremiah:
“The LORD your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. Moreover the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.” (Deu 30:5-6 NASB)
“For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” (Eze 36:24-26 NASB)
“‘Behold, days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt …x
“They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” (Jer 31:31-35 NASB)
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The promise – A new heart. A new watchman. A new love.
The new covenant would not be a religious covenant. It would be a covenant of life where each believer would know and enjoy the Lord on a personal and an intimate basis. (Lord, please deliver us from our religions.)
It would be a life of ‘Come to the waters’
For my second song listen carefully to ‘For Those Tears I Died.’
Do you recall what Jesus said when he stopped the priestly procession on its way to the pool of Siloam? Listen carefully where Jesus describes a life that is an outflow of the Spirit:
“Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’
“But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” (John 7:37-39 NASB)
Did you know that Jesus was speaking from the promise made in Isaiah 55. Once again listen carefully. (If you learn this you will never get caught up in religious-idolatry again.)
“Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy?
“Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourself in abundance. Incline your ear and come to Me. Listen, that you may live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, according to the faithful mercies shown to David.” (Isa 55:1-3 NASB)
What is the keynote in this prophecy? Listen! Listen to Me! Come to Me! Learn to have a heart like David’s! Incline your ear!
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Jesus did not come to give us a religion.
I am going to say this until it begins doing its work in the hearts of believers.
Men create religions. Religion is all about control. Jesus came to give us a wonderful relationship with the heavenly Father. This relationship will flower out and build itself up as we learn to walk with the Lord Himself.
None of this is about not gathering with other believers for worship and instruction. It is all about who you are gathering with. Paul said to Timothy:
“Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.” (2Tim2:22)
What kind of heart do you have? Is it a religious heart where you are into church-idolatry? Or is it a heart that has learned to listen to Jesus.
Take time for this third and final song. ‘Change My Heart O God.’
Do you need help? Help is on His way. Just call upon the Lord Jesus. He is very near to you, as near as your heart and your mouth. Jesus is only a breath away.
You see, our little poplar tree could not grow because of the miry clay around its roots. Did you know that some legalistic religions can serve as miry clay in our lives. What can you do about it? Do what Mary told the wine servers, “Whatever He tells you to do, do it.” Just ask Him!
Yes, I did grieve over the little tree. Can’t help it. I have always had a very tender heart. But it also grieves me when I see God’s people sometimes treated like sinners, and see sinners treated like dogs. Makes me wonder how God feels about all our religions.
What then is God’s message to the world? It never changes.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
“For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” (John 3:16-17 NASB)
Think about it.
Much love to be found in Jesus,
Buddy
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