“The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians: who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.” – Brennan Manning
There are very few meaningful words I can think of that have been ingrained in my head from a young age. While I could quote the original Spiderman film from beginning to end, holding on to anything meaningful was not really at the top of my list early on in life.
However, from about the age of twelve I knew the words above by heart, not necessarily for profound reasons either, they preceded one of my favourite DCTalk tracks, but regardless they became ingrained in my memory. I did not know who originally said it or even who Brennan Manning was till I was in my university years but I knew the quote word for word, backwards and upside down. However recently thinking back on these words and looking particularly closely at my life, it was like examining a digital photo up close, seeing detail you never saw at the time, realising it has captured flaws you never even realised were there, and it hit me. Knowing something off by heart is not the same as truly taking something to heart.
I think we can all think of scriptures, worship songs, or words the spirit spoke to our hearts, that while we may know “off by heart” if we take a close look, we have not properly taken to heart.
So why is it so difficult to live by things we know so well? It is all about the heart.
“Guard your heart for it is the well spring of life” Proverbs 4:23 [NIV]
Scripture is clear, the heart is central. It is the well spring of life, it is what God looks at, it is where we are meant to store the law of the Lord, it is where the spirit of God fills us with love, it where when we believe in our heart we are saved, it is where Christ makes home in us.
We need to not simply know the scripture but meditate on it day and night and take it to heart, we need to spend time with God preparing our hearts so spoken words can enter. We need to petition the Spirit to transform our hearts, that we would grow in the direction God has for our lives and not simply glance in that direction as our prayer life directs us.
This is a big challenge but I take heart, that our God is bigger.
Tim Holt
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