“The
heart is deceitful”
Jeremiah 17:9 (RSV)
“Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be”
Matthew 6:21 (NLT)
“Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be”
Matthew 6:21 (NLT)
What
are your most valuable possessions?
Family,
home, investments?
God tells us two very important things about the human “heart”.
First He tells that we cannot trust our “heart,” meaning our desires,
feeling, emotions.
They are really bad leaders.
“Follow your heart” might be the worst most common advice you’ll
ever hear.
If I were to follow my heart on a bad day, I’d be in trouble.
Second,
we are told that our “heart” (emotions,
energy, attention, focus, desires, feelings) follows
our
decisions.
It’s an interesting cycle.
On a bad day the bad part of my heart “stalks” me until I succumb to
it and allow it to lead me to a bad decision and bad actions.
Then there’s a hook that lures me back to more of the same.
Of course the opposite can happen where God who “stalks” me until I
succumb to Him. But both Jeremiah and Jesus warn us to start not with the
desires of our heart, but instead with hard, right, risky decisions which
require faith and trust.
Our hearts follow our decisions.
In
terms of money this is Treasure Principle # 2:
My heart goes to where I choose to invest my money.
If I invest in a stock, I follow that stock.
If I invest in God’s work in Kenya, then I pay attention to news about
Kenya.
That’s just the reality.
Jesus spoke real life.
He wasn’t “spiritual”.
He only talked about life as it is.
We either live it or miss it.
Think
about where your money goes.
Think about where the actual desires of your heart lie.
Now think about what you will write on your “% of Giving card” that
you will bring to the cross on one of the next three weeks. Your
decision will be a determinate in how much of your heart follows.
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