Dirty Hearts
Yeah, you’re pretty! Sure you look good! Walking around with those new clothes, manicured nails, fresh cut, perfect makeup and glam shoes. It’s hard to tell what’s true, what’s genuine in today’s world. We have rogue photographers capturing the perfect shot with Insta worthy families and many people now Facebook famous. Yeah, you look good, but how’s your heart looking? Fooling those around you is easy, God, not so much.
Dirty, according to Dictionary.com is defined as covered or marked with an unclean substance. Collins Dictionary elaborates the words by describing it as marked or covered with stains, spots or mud, unclean or impure. It is important to note when the Bible speaks of the heart, its referring to the center focal point of a person, the ruling place that drives desires. The Bible mentions “heart” over 1,000 times! Important to God much? YES, most definitely.
For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. 20 These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.” Matthew 15:19-20
I love avocados! I can eat them with anything. Morning, lunch and dinner. An avocado can look so good, can have the right color and texture at the store, yet when cut at the house it’s rotten, ugly or black inside. I have spent years trying to figure out how to pick the right avocado, but those little suckers are maliciously deceiving. Prepare yourself for this tip: picking off the stem gives a glimpse of the true inside nature of the avocado. I was 37 when I learned this and still get it wrong, but this trick helps. Thank you, go confidently to your local grocery store and be deceived no more.
I wonder how many of us are like these avocados, fooling everyone around us and walking around with rotten insides. The day will come, sooner than later, when the true nature of our hearts will be revealed. God knows the innermost. Think of the time spent perfecting life, this temporary life. The energy extracted pursuing self-designed goals. The moments consumed with vain promotion or personal accolades.
There’s nothing wrong with making the best of the life we have, the temple we walk in, and the gifts God gave us IF and WHEN we know our life is His life, our temple belongs to Him and the gifts we have, He gave. God desires our whole heart, even those ugly, stained, dirty areas. He sees beyond the presentation, the cover-up, the facade. What are you holding on to? What are you hiding? Pay attention because envy, jealousy, pride, lust, selfish ambition, anger, deception (so many more) have a way of coming out as much as you try to hide it.
For out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks. Luke 6:45
Are you tired of pretending to be OK, when you’re not? Cease the fight and lay it down at the feet of Jesus. A stronghold is a place Satan has been allowed to have legal rights and to set up camp. Boy does he take advantage of this! A door might have been opened at some point in life, someone may have inflicted pain or imposed something unwanted, but authority can be taken up today! It’s a strong-hold because it’s got a STRONG hold on you! You’ve tried EVERYTHING and it still has a grip on you! You keep finding yourself back there again! Its’ strong, it's powerful and it pulls you back when you are trying to run away from it. It tears you down, but do you know you can tear IT down? There is help and He goes by Comforter, Counselor, Intercessor, God’s presence with us, Spirit of Truth, and the third person of the Trinity. He’s Holy Spirit. When you can’t fight or wash away the ugly, He gives strength to the weary and He increases the power of the weak (Isaiah 40:29). The amazing thing about God is He gives us heart transplants! He washes our hearts clean. He removes stains. He scrubs away the marks no man could remove.
Isaiah 1:18
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
They shall be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They shall be as wool”.
That is the transformative POWER of God. It is possible to be healed and live a life pleasing to God IF we work at keeping our heart pure from anything that defiles us. Easy-NO! Possible-YES, with Holy spirit power. I know this and believe this because I have battled and overcame MANY strongholds in my life through Dunamis power.
Practical steps: take as needed and BELIEVE:
Confess your sin to God, repent of the heart issue, ask Holy Spirit to reveal the root of the stronghold, confront the stronghold, speak scripture to demolish the fortification in your heart, close any door opened, relinquish and legal assignment the enemy has established in your heart and allow Holy Spirit to heal. It may take work, it may not be pretty, you may hurt as you walk through this, but the pain is worth the refinement.
Blessings,
Pastor Eunise Richardson
~ Lead Pastor of Foundation of Life Church
