This seems like the easy thing to do but we struggle because sometimes we want to be two different people. Our heart transformation is vital to our walk with the Lord. If we change only what people see we are fooling ourselves and we will continue to struggle with knowing the peace and joy that comes with our knowing Jesus the Lord and Savior of our lives.
We have been going through a series at The Rock Church called: Hear – Think – Speak – Grow and it has been really pushing that our walk is a growth process and takes that cleaning the inside as well as the outside. As we hear God’s word our mind starts wrestling with what God is telling us and we think about how to process it in our lives. It goes in to our mind and then as it travels to our heart we use it to change and transform who we were because we are new creations after we accept Jesus. As our heart fills with the Spirit we can speak what we are learning because what we put in our hearts is what will come out when we are tested.
Life is so full of information, without trying we get all kinds of negative and false expectations from the world. There is never a time when nothing is going in we have got to make sure we are putting God’s word in so we can renew the mind and fill the heart with truth. Look at what Paul says in Galatians chapter 6 verses 7-8, “Don’t be misled – you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit.” As we surrender and we fix our attention on what is good (God’s word) we start to speak what is good and we start to grow and that growth is from the inside and it permeates the entire body and our outside is clean as well. We then live one life honoring God and our actions are seen to be the same as our words.
The entire 23rd chapter in Matthew is written to show the sorrow of no heart change, look at verses 27-28 which say, “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs – beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurities. Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.” We must make sure we are growing internally and letting it grow to shine the outside as well. Amen