Faith

Matters of the Heart

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Man lives inside out. Your actions and words are a function of the state your heart is in. This means that out of a pure heart comes pure things and out of a corrupted heart comes corruption. If you, therefore, find yourself saying or doing things that are ungodly, you need to look into your heart and work it out from inside-out.

Proverbs 4:23: “Keep your heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life..” God created man to live from the inside-out. That means that everything you do is a function of the state your heart. That is why in Matthew 12:34, it says “…out of the abundance of the heart speaketh…” and again in Matthew 5:28, it says “…whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart..”

I remember when I was growing up as a little girl; my dad came home one day with a copy of the TV series: Prison Break. We were on holiday from school so we all enjoyed Prison Break. Few days after, into the following weeks, I noticed some funny traits in myself. I started acting like Scofield. Well, not exactly like him though. I couldn’t even if I wanted to 🙂

But I normally would climb down the staircase, I started jumping down three or more steps at a go instead. I became a detective in training from my father’s house. I started following the water pipes from the kitchen and the bathrooms, tracing the round the house. All of these were planted in my subconscious because of what I saw. The same thing happened when I watched ‘Titanic’; every small thing, I would cry. You know, in an attempt to replicate Jack and Rose’s kind of story, I had funny stories and fantasies brewing in my head.

Your actions and words are a function of the state your heart is in Click To Tweet

Again, one day I was in school chatting with some of my classmates. All of a sudden, a cuss word came flying out of my mouth. It was normal among those guys then but something pricked me. I knew that wasn’t me, but I didn’t know from where it came. Several times also, I found lines of certain songs that were inappropriate fly out of my mouth. Not as though I intended to sing them… But I had been exposing myself to those kinds of music and it had become a part of me even without my permission.

In the same way, when it comes to love matters, I mean boy-girl drama, a lot of hurts and disappointments we get are from expectations we build in our hearts… from movies, books and what-have-you. So it’s not so much about the other person is wrong, but when you don’t see those expectations come to pass… you feel disappointed. And they are majorly not realistic,  you feel disappointed a lot of times. Funny thing is: you don’t even know when you set up those fantasies and expectations in your heart because it is all so subtle.

Looking back now, I realize that it was the things I saw and heard that informed the state of my heart. And in the same way, the state of my heart informed my actions and speech. This didn’t happen all of a sudden as I thought. It had been brewing within me. It only became evident because it was manifesting outwardly.

The eye and ears are major windows of the heart. Click To Tweet

You are responsible for the state of your heart. It is the personal responsibility of every believer that you guard your heart. Your heart is so critical because from it every other thing about it flows. That’s why the Bible says ‘guard’. You don’t guard something that’s already safe, but because of the vulnerability of man, the bible specifically said ‘guard’. It’s so subtle. A lot of times, you don’t know it’s happening but your heart is being corrupted by those lyrics, scenes, or those friends.

It’s like a computer: garbage in, garbage out. Take the matters of your heart very seriously. Deliberately look out for things that corrupt you and stay away from it. The ‘in’ of your heart determines the ‘out’ – your words and actions.

The ‘in’ of your heart determines the ‘out’ – your words and actions. Click To Tweet

I’ll give another personal account. I met someone some months after I left the university and she asked me if I schooled abroad. I was like, “nmu-a?” (It means me In Igbo). I had to deliberately bring out the igboness in me so that she’d believe that I went to a Nigerian university. I had spent so much time watching and listening to foreign speakers that I began to sound like them even without me intending to.

In the same vein, when you surround yourself with edifying things, you are automatically edified. Your heart is in great shape and your outward actions correspond. You are being conformed to the image of God when you expose yourself to the things of God. So surround yourself with songs, movies, books, articles, people that say what God says because they define the content of your heart.

Peace!

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