 |
| http://johnnyholland.org/2011/06/learning-styles-the-cognitive-side-of-content/ |
Sometimes you get it on the first try. Sometimes pieces of that furniture may end up broken before they ever reach their fully assembled state. And that's when you're using the correct instructions!!
What if you were using the wrong instructions? What if you had the instructions to set up a king size bed and you were putting together a crib? That's a ridiculous question, I know. At that point, you wouldn't even bother trying to use the wrong instructions. You'd just make your best guess (or use the internet and pull up a handy dandy PDF document of the instructions - but lets pretend that can't happen right now).
I came to a realization when I was reading my Bible this morning. I have spent a good portion of the last 10 years living my life according to the wrong instructions. What do I mean by that?
1. I am a Christian, a believer, a child of God, born again... there are so many different ways to say it. But that's who I am. God has given me a new heart, a heart that can please and follow Him. It's a heart that is pure and rejoices in good, delights in service and finds its greatest joy when it is seeking God's glory.
Ezekiel 36:26-27
26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And
I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes
and be careful to obey my rules.
2. Those who have not been awakened by God, those who still have a heart of stone, do not delight in what is good. It is not a heart that is most fulfilled when it seeks God's glory. Rather, its desire is for itself - for its preservation, for its comfort, for its ultimate well-being. This is where a majority of all humankind is, many Christians included. This is where I have spent much of my time in the past years.
So what's the big deal? I have a new heart, paid for at the very expensive price of Christ's sacrifice for my sins. I have been living by the old instructions, per say, that came with my old heart, my heart of stone. When I seek first my comfort and my own well-being, I'm not living according to the instructions that came with my new heart. I'm using the old ones - the wrong ones. As frustrating as it is to imagine putting furniture together with the wrong instructions, how frustrating has it been trying to live your life according to the wrong instructions?
If you are a believer and you are seeking what is best for you first, you are going to be frustrated, unsatisfied, unfulfilled and ultimately miserable. You may be able to distract yourself from that reality if you stay busy enough, work enough, set difficult goals, or keep yourself entertained with television, movies, the internet, smartphones that enable us never to have a quiet moment if we don't want one.
When God gave me a new heart, He gave me new life with it. Because I have that new life, the old life will no longer please me - not lasting pleasure anyway... It may be temporary, but the pleasures of this world are deceitful. They last for only a time, and they end up taking more than they give you.
Ephesians 5:17-24
17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
The heart of flesh that God has given me, my new and awakened heart is designed to function according to God's instructions. Where do we find them? The Bible. What's the best summary of God's instructions? Jesus tells us in the book of Matthew:
Matthew 22:36-39
36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
There isn't a third commandment listed about loving yourself. Why? That's what we're fighting against doing. That is what our old heart tells us to do - look out for yourself first. No one else will.
Oh boy. I've already written a lot here. How many of your attention spans lasted this far? I try to keep things short so I don't overload you... but I think I need to blog a little more often if I'm going to accomplish that goal.
For those of you who aren't Christians (thanks for sticking with me this far) - maybe you don't understand what the big deal about having a new heart is? Maybe your life looks a whole lot better than some of the Christians you know. I have a number of friends who are not Christians who put me to shame with their discipline, generosity, and kindness. What do they need a new heart for if they're already doing so well on their own?
Lord willing, I'll continue on that thought with my next post...
