The State of the Heart

 Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. Proverbs 4:23

I remember back in school when after attending a seminar or event, we would leave greatly inspired and overly excited. At that moment we were convinced and determined to live what was picked from the talks. Personally, this fire would only last one, two days or even a whole week. Well, "good students" were wise enough to actually practice what they learnt. This is the same thing that happens today to some of us , if not all, after attending an event or even church; In this case, when we hear the word of God. What is the state of your heart? The heart is actually one of the things that determines how we receive and perceive what we hear. In light of this, I will share the parable of the sower told by Jesus in Mark 4:3-20. It's pretty much direct to the point.

As a sower was planting his seeds, some fell by the wayside and were eaten by birds. Others fell on a stony ground, where they immediately sprang up. However, they were scorched by the sun and withered because they lacked depth. Other seeds fell among thorns, but did not yield any crops because they were choked by the thorns. Lastly, some seeds fell on good ground and yielded crops in different measures. This is what the parable means. The seed is God's word. The ground is our hearts. The seeds that fell on the wayside represent the people who hear the word of God and do not understand it. So satan comes and takes the word from their heart. The ones that fell on the stony ground represent people who receive the word with joy. However, when they face tribulation they fall out because they have no root. As for the seeds that fell on the stony ground, they represent people who hear the word, but their desire for the things of the world overwhelm the word in their hearts and it does not yield any fruits.

Nevertheless, there is the good ground. This represents the people who receive and accept the word, thereby bearing fruit in different measures. At some point, all of us fall somewhere here. What is the state of our hearts...; because that is what will determine the effect that the word of God has on us. Do we hear the word or attend church religiously, get excited for a moment, but soon enough forget what we heard or read. In the same way that satan steals the word from the heart, he will use different challenges and persecutions so that we give up. He will use the pleasures of life, desire for and deceit in wealth, the standards set by society, name it... to deter us from the WORD, so that our desire for the things of the world is greater than the desire for God. So, let's search our hearts through God and guard them, because this WORD is light and life. 

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. James 1:23

 Remember this...Uwezo by Adawnage