In Matthew 13:3-8, our Lord Jesus refers to the Word of God as seeds for sowing, and our hearts as soil under different conditions: some hearts are stony, hard to penetrate and lacking root; others are thorny, barbed with the lusts of this world; but some hearts are good and fertile soil, cleared of rubbish and ready to receive the Word of God (hence breaking up your fallow ground). In Matthew 13:24-30, he goes further to teach us that it is not only God that sows His Word into our hearts – Satan, too, is always out to sow evil seeds into our hearts when we’re not alert: seeds of doubt and unforgiveness in our relationships, seeds of lustful and unclean thoughts, seeds of malice and malignance. In fact, Jesus says that all that we say and do is rooted in our hearts (Matthew 12:34-35; 15:18-20). That is why Proverbs 4:23 instructs us to “keep our hearts with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.”

It takes a regenerated heart to obey the voice of God and fulfil His commandments (Romans 2:28-29). It takes a mature heart to handle the abundant blessings that God has ordained for each and every one of us and to not forget Him along the way (Deuteronomy 8:16-18). Even in the area of spiritual warfare, the need for our hearts to be aright in the sight of God cannot be emphasised enough. As soldiers of Jesus Christ, according to 2 Timothy 2:3-4, we cannot afford to engage in prayer warfare based on our emotions, on carnal anger, on hatred, on anxiety or fear. Our emotions are carnal. However, the fight we fight is not carnal, but spiritual (2 Corinthians 10:3-5; Ephesians 6:12). Like soldiers in the natural sense, warring based on our emotions can leave us to be dangerously exposed to demonic reprisals. Even worse, like natural soldiers, continual warring with a heart that is spiritually immature and that has not been touched by God can at long last leave one to be spiritually traumatised. That will never be your portion in Jesus’ name.

Today, we need to sit down and ask ourselves, “What type of heart do I really have?” If we ask God to reveal what is in our hearts and search deeply within ourselves, we would be surprised to see what is lurking inside. God wants us to “rend our hearts, and not our garments, and turn unto the Lord our God” (Joel 2:12-13). Now, more than ever is the time for us to be sincere, open and honest to God. Whether we are young or old in the Lord, we need to ask God to transform our hearts. With a pure heart will we eventually see God (Matthew 5:8), and with a clean heart may we have confidence before the judgment seat of Christ (1 John 3:20-21; 4:17). Even so, having changed hearts is not the final bus stop: we must maintain our hearts and DILIGENTLY GUARD them AT ALL TIMES. Why? Well, Saul, a man whose heart was touched by God (1 Samuel 10:9), later backslid, turning from God due to his own negligence (1 Samuel 15:13-24). Therefore, we need to ask God to touch our hearts DAILY and resist the devil’s attempts to sow evil seeds in them by refusing to dwell on anger, unforgiveness, or any evil thought. We need to ask God for His mercy and touch on a daily basis, and for Him to remove every emotional burden from us when we go into prayer warfare. We need to meditate on the Word of God, sing and listen to songs of praise and worship, and hear good counsel when matters arise. Such and such are sure ways to help you keep your heart.

Let God expose unto you every evil seed that the enemy may have planted in your heart. Let our Lord Jesus Christ touch, cleanse, and regenerate your heart, that you may ever know Him, worship Him, and obey Him in spirit and in truth. Let our Lord Jesus also grant unto you the grace to keep your heart every day of your life, as you interact with people, as you pray, and as you prosper, even as your soul prospers (3 John 2). Above all, Satan shall never find any place in your heart, but your heart shall ever be the dwelling place of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, in the mighty name of Jesus.

Image Source: Pixabay

We Christians seem to have a lot of tendencies. We tend to remember the time, the place, and the pew of when we first confessed Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, but we also tend to forget about the first principles of our faith: how to love one another and follow the commandments of God. We tend to make our sowing, almsgiving, and work in the house of God the pinnacle of our Christianity, which are of course good things, but we also tend to forget that our relationship with God is what is most important to Him and should be to us too. We tend to pray, or even go into fasting, with a genuine desire for God’s intervention in our lives and situations, but we often overlook an important aspect of our lives: the aspect that can either propel or hinder our answered prayers, that can beautify or belittle our good works before God, and that is ever before the eyes of the Lord. We Christians are good at offering our praise, our worship, our time, our tithes, and our sacrifices, but it’s high time that we offer up unto the Lord OUR HEARTS. Whether we are seasoned Christians or newly born again, we cannot afford to be near to God with our lips yet afar with our hearts. We are in the end times. We cannot afford to risk our eternity with Christ because of stony hearts. As Hosea 10:12 says, “break up your fallow ground, for it’s time to seek the Lord…”

“… Break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you” – Hosea 10:12.

We often mistake our work for God and our relationship with God as one and the same, when in fact, they are two separate things. Using our relationships with people as an analogy, you may be doing things for them without actually knowing (or wanting to know) them in depth. In fact, you may not be doing those things from the heart, but only to fulfill your own interests or get something in return. However, when you have a close relationship with someone, it goes beyond what you do for them: you reach a level of intimacy with that person, and attain a desire to spend quality time with them. So also is the case with God. God wants us to know him beyond the works and beyond the blessings, through Jesus Christ our Saviour. The key to us developing a stronger relationship with God is through the REGENERATION OF OUR HEARTS, where through a changed heart we can indeed worship God in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). No wonder why to obey is better than sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:22)!

Like being born again, the regeneration of the heart is a definite moment when God touches you, removes your stony heart, and replaces it with a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 11:19; 36:26). Such a heart is tender, willing to hear and obey His voice, and a fertile ground for the Word of God to prosper. It is only with a heart of flesh that we can truly forgive AND forget. Really, we Christians ought to have regenerated hearts to be truly born again (Romans 10:10). The heart is arguably the most spiritual aspect of our bodies, which links the body, soul, and spirit together. As Ezekiel 11:19 shows, the heart is the seat of our relationship with God. Indeed, it is only through a regenerated heart that we can worship God in spirit and in truth, and fulfil His commandments (Romans 2:28-29). This explains why God is so interested in our hearts. But, for what God is interested in, so is the enemy…

Photo by Wolfgang Hasselmann on Unsplash