The Lord Jesus said that it’s what comes out of a man’s heart that defiles him. It pollutes the person with all the bad things that come out of it. (Ref: Matthew 15:16-20)
Jesus names evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies as things that come out of the man’s heart. Evil or good is conceived in the heart before it is manifested.
The Lord Jesus pointed out to the scribes and pharisees that their traditions made the commandments of God of none effect. We can be so caught up in the way we do things that we neglect the ways of God. Culture and tradition affect the ways that we do things, influence our mindsets, and determine our beliefs.
The danger with culture and tradition is that they take root into a person’s mind and heart. It then becomes difficult to recognise the wrong thinking patterns or bad ways to avoid them. We can easily associate our traditions to the Word of God and believe that they’re right. We justify our ways of doing things with the bible. Our culture is instilled from birth and so at times, we fail to see the wrong in our everyday behaviour because it has been there since before we knew how to walk.
Matthew 15: 18 says that what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart. I thought about it and considered a person who lies to deceive another person. They intentionally omit to tell the truth to mislead the other person. I realised that in this case, as the bible says, false witness or testimony is what’s in the person’s heart. When a person is truthful then their heart has no intention to mislead others.
In Matthew 12:33-35, Jesus explains well how to judge a man’s intentions. He says that good can not come out of evil. If a tree is bad, it cannot produce a good fruit. Likewise, if a man’s heart conceives evil, it will only produce evil. Today, many gurus of positive attitude and manifestation quote this verse of the bible in different ways “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). If a person spends their day entertaining thoughts that are self-destructive , they are basically creating that life in the future. We may say “I knew it” but in reality we did create that life.
On the contrary, if we create a beautiful life and agree with it despite our present circumstance, we are most likely going to see the manifestation of that life in the future. I heard the story of a woman who became successful in her business after many years. She explained that she would sit in the same place by the window imagining herself owning the business she then ended up owning. Many years later, the same view she imagined did manifest. We have a powerful tool; our mind. Many of us unfortunately don’t use it in our favour. I went on the journey to renewing my mind when I understood how powerful it is. I have seen manifested things that I entertained but did not want to see happen. It gave me chills. This exercise is certainly not easy, nevertheless not impossible.
Proverbs 4:23 tells us to keep our hearts with all diligence, because its affections affect all that we are. Springs of life flow out of our hearts. I read somewhere “what captures the mind, captures the man”. The heart and the mind can be used interchangeably. We need to pay attention to the feelings and emotions our hearts feel because they will one day spring up in words or actions. A person who has feelings of jealousy towards their loved one may well truly love the person but if they do not deal with those feelings will one day react in an undesirable way. We have the duty of recognising negative feelings and emotions rather than justify them. No one wants to be at fault but solving a matter starts with recognising own wrongs.
Gracefully,
Kate
GraceFully 