However, even if we have read this far, we will still fight Jesus' command by protecting our right to these other loves. We don't want to admit their existence because we don't want God to take them away! More than often we will distract people and ourselves by focusing on the problems of others who have a like sin. We often are blind or deaf to our different loves because down deep in our hearts we know God is not pleased with these other affections. In the example to the right, we will need to eliminate our love for cars and family so to gain a pure love for God. God has told us that our love for God must take priority in our lives (Mark 12:30), "AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH." (Mark 12:30). Love for God means that he gives a lot of time, talk and money to God and His concerns. Love for family means that he gives a lot of time, talk and money to family. Love for cars means that because one loves cars, he gives a lot of time, talk and money to cars. When we love something, it means we place it as a priority over other things. Let us develop this example a bit further to better illustrate how this works. Lukewarmness comes from having many smaller parts which choke out real affection for the Lord. We would expect to find in his life that he is pursuing three main goals. The other two areas are differently focused as seen in the different direction of the arrows. This is the new heart that is responsive to the Lord and His Spirit. The center one is the chief controlling area of the Christian. In the illustration to our left, we have three main affections in our life. These affections reveal our hearts' devotion and support for those particular areas of our lives. They show themselves through our activities and choices in daily life. However, we can detect our greatest affections.
ENJOY COMPANIONSHIP WITH OTHERS WHO HAVE PURE HEARTS PDF
Purchase The Godly Man and its ten studies in easy epub or pdf format!īecause our hearts are hidden away deep in the recesses of our heart, we have a difficult time analyzing our hearts for weaknesses. We have dedicated different parts of our affections to pursue those things we like, desire and choose. Each fragment of the heart is reserved by us for different purposes. If our heart is divided from a pure affection to please God, then our hearts are fragmented. ( 1) The term 'fragment' comes from the breaking apart of one whole heart into pieces. I will be using the phrase 'fragmented heart' to describe what happens when we have more than one chief desire. For now, let us use one illustration that can help us understand what is going on in our hearts. We will return to the art of detecting these other desires later. Since the heart produces these affections, we know our hearts are affected when we have desires other than pleasing our Lord. Impurity in our hearts can be detected by our different affections (things we like and desire).
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