There’s so much that comes to mind about today’s topic. Here’s some of what’s on my heart this morning.
Some people learn about how to stay away from trouble by reading, some by observing others’ mistakes, and some just have to learn by making their own mistakes regardless of being warned ahead of time.
Safe in the arms of Jesus…No place like it!
“Looks like there’s a few weeds growing in the back yard.” “I know. There aren’t too many yet so I’ll get to them next weekend.” “I don’t mean to nag, but that’s what you said last weekend.”
For, “In just a very while little, He (Jesus) who is coming will come and will not delay.
Hebrews 10:37
Who/what are you bonding with, Mark? Are you procrastinating, compromising, being complacent or nonchalant in an area of your life regarding your spiritual life? Are you getting comfortable with something you shouldn’t be allowing? Are you thinking, “It’s okay, I’ll deal with it. And, anyway, it’s not that big a deal?”
I was at a computer training center taking a class in the new version of an application we used at my workplace. I was with another person from our company. We’d finished that day’s session and my peer asked me if I wanted to go grab a beer. To my own surprise, I told him I couldn’t drink any more because that’s how I started to fall away from the Lord at one time in my life and that I knew I probably wouldn’t survive another falling away from God since it is so hard to come back to Him. He was okay with my answer and even appeared to respect my position on the matter.
There was a time in my life when I wasn’t guarding my heart like I am today. I thought my heart was safe, but I was being deceived. I thought, “I got this. I’ll be okay” with an unfamiliar arrogance (God’s protective humility was slipping away from my heart. Humility is such a crucial spiritual barometer). What I discovered is that this kind of thinking is super-dangerous.
I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; [it] shall not cleave to me.
Psalm 101:3
What had happened is that I began dating a really popular girl. As a result, I was becoming pretty popular with some classmates who weren’t close to God but who were recognized as the “in crowd” at my school. And, I kind of liked it. I thought I could handle more and more of the worldliness I was subjecting myself to and letting into my life. I didn’t realize that I was really being pursued and seduced by darkness – Satan will do whatever it takes to destroy your walk with the Lord..
Without really realizing it (Deception’s trick), I was spending less and less time with the things of God. Unperceptively, gradually, I slowly slid then fell away from Jesus, and my heart became “hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.”
In His faithfulness, the Lord allowed a few hard lessons (a bad car wreck and being held up at gun point to name a few) to bring me back to Him, but the prodigal situation I’d been living in cost me all the fruit God had grown in my life up to the point before I fell. It would take decades to grow that fruit again.
I can’t even tell you how important it is to guard your heart with ALL diligence. I discovered that no one else can do it for you. With the help of the Holy Spirit, you must monitor and protect your heart from every tentacle of darkness that tries to deceive you and lure you away from the precious, safe dwelling place of the Most High.
The night is nearly over; the day has drawn near. So let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.
Romans 13:12
But exhort one another daily, as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
Hebrews 3:13
And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
Revelation 12:9
But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.
2 Corinthians 11:3
Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.
Galatians 6:7
The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! (I remember the devil telling me the same thing.)
Genesis 3:4
Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;
Psalm 91:9
In Psalm 91, the writer implies that the protection mentioned in this passage is only for those who have made the Lord their habitation, their dwelling place, the place they live, where they spend most, if not all of, their time.
Above all else, guard thy heart; for out of it flows the issues of life.
Proverbs 4:23
Please make sure you’re guarding your heart with all diligence. Ask God to show you how you can guard your heart and if there’s anything in your heart, in your life, that may be deceiving you, that may cause you to eventually lose your relationship with God.
Blessed (safe, at peace, joyful, resting, not fearful) is that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
Psalm 40:4
Because he hath set his love upon me (God), therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.
He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.
With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation (God rescued me from the destruction pride, arrogance, fear, jealousy, lust, drinking, swearing, anger, frustration and other attributes that darkness had brought into my life by my falling away from Jesus).
Psalm 91:14-16
God bless,
Mark