Heart Change III
October 16, 2009
Heart change can be elusive. We have discussed values, motives and beliefs. But the heart must have consistent attention. Changing habits is hard and takes time and discipline. Both are in short supply in most people’s lives. Changing the heart takes an attentive, watchful and perceptive eye. We must discipline ourselves to keep watch over own hearts.
It is one thing to identify the mistakes of the heart, to see our wrong beliefs, or our wrong motives; this is only the beginning of heart change. They are essential to begin the process but they must be joined together with repentance and surrender. These are not happy words, but they are life changing words.
Repentance is the response to a need for change. When the need for heart change is revealed to us by God and the work of the Holy Spirit, we are faced with a crisis of the will. We are faced with a choice. We can ignore it or we can acknowledge it. Obviously, it does us no good to ignore it, so with heart change being our goal, we should acknowledge it. Here is the beginning of the struggle: the heart does not want to change and moves toward the path of least resistance. Our natural tendency then is to ignore the prompting of the Holy Spirit to do any heart change. We say things like, “I guess that is just the way I am”, or “that keeps happening to me” or” I wish I could change that about me”. But, we don’t take the necessary steps to change the heart. We make excuses. Often times, these excuses blame other people or, worse yet, we blame God for the condition of our hearts. You see, bitterness, anger, a critical spirit, apathy, indifference, etc., are all choices and they all can be changed. God did not make you bitter or indifferent nor did anybody else.
So let’s say you get to the place of acknowledgment; you in your heart agree with God that something needs to change in your heart. This is the next step in changing your heart. Let’s say what is wrong with your heart is bitterness, a lack of forgiveness. You say, “I agree with you God. I have a heart filled with bitterness.” The next step is to repent. This means to stop and turn and go in the opposite direction. The remedy for bitterness is forgiveness. That is the 180 degree turn.
Bitterness is usually rooted in 2 false beliefs. The first is: if I forgive someone there will be no justice; the person won’t pay for the things they did to me. The second is: I have a right to hold things against people.
Heart change requires right beliefs about God, ourselves and people. Forgiveness is the essence of our relationship with God. Without His forgiveness we have no chance of a relationship with God. So we need to believe that God forgave us so much that we ought to forgive others. Let Him keep the justice ledger and have Him help us restore our relationship with people who have hurt us.
It takes effort to change the heart.
