Last night I had the privilege to speak to a group of sweet ladies at Unity Baptist Church. Since it happened to be Valentine's Day, the theme of my message was the heart. One of the first things I did was read the lyrics to an old song titled, "How About Your Heart".
1. Friend, how would you feel if your heart were made
With a window on each side?
So that all could see, not just
outward charm,
But detect if inward harm?
Chorus:
People often see you as you are
outside;
Jesus really knows you, for He
sees deep down inside;
How about your heart, Is it
right with God?
That's the thing that counts
today.
2. Is it black with sin, is it
pure within,
Have you asked Christ in to
stay?
How about your heart? Is it
right with God
That's the thing that counts
today:
This is so true! This
is the thing that counts today and every day!
God doesn’t always see a pretty red Valentine when He looks at our heart. Sometimes
He has some pretty strong words to say about us. Such as Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and
desperately wicked: who can know it?
Many a person has gotten in trouble because they have just
‘’followed their heart’’ instead of getting into God’s Word and seeing if their
heart was right with God first.
We get all of this worldly stuff stuck on us and we
come to God and He tells us how to get it to turn loose….. Ephesians 5:26That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water
by the word,
John 15:3 “Now ye are clean
through the word which I have spoken unto you.”
So now
we’ve talked about what to do when we get the stink of the world on us…..be
washed by the water of God’s Word. There’s nothing like the mirror of God’s
Word that will point out to us the mess we have gotten ourselves into!
Next I pulled two red Valentine boxes out of my bag. One box looked pretty. The other box was all marked on and messy looking. The pretty one was the symbol of love in that it was in the shape of a heart, was red in color, and had a picture of a red rose on it. But on closer examination it was found when I turned the box over that the seal had been broken and a piece of freezer tape put back in it's place. Even more tampering had been done because when I opened the box, instead of luscious chocolate candies, there were plain ole rocks! I used this box as an example of how things of the world can LOOK beautiful on the outside but yet on the inside if they were consumed they would be very harmful. This box reminded me of Satan and how he uses his beauty to deceive people into being hurt.
Ezekiel 28:17 says of Satan…”Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty.” He’s a beauty on the surface BUT horrible and
evil on the inside.
The other box was pretty ugly. It had zigzag marks on it and words like: hatred, lying, lust, pride, and envy. This box reminded me of the way some of us see ourselves. We fall into the sins I mentioned and many others not mentioned. We all
know what we’re guilty of. Even as Christian women we do these things.
And sometimes even even though we confess our sins to God, Satan keeps bringing them
up and makes us wonder if God had just rather ‘’throw us away’’ than keep cleaning us up. Well, you know the answer to that
but just let me tell you again…just like the song says “He doesn’t throw the clay away”.
Then I turned the ugly, marked up, scarred box over and asked this question... What’s different about this
box of candy? The answer was: It has the SEAL still
on it! And if we have been
saved, we are SEALED. Ephesians 1:13 says
In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of
your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed were sealed
with the holy Spirit of promise,
When we get saved we are at that same time ‘’sealed’’ unto
the day of redemption by the Holy Spirit. But things may happen in our lives that scar us. We may face the loss of something precious to
us. A job. Our home. Or a loved
one. Things may not have turned out in
our lives the way we had dreamed and planned as a young girl. You may have been abused physically,
mentally, verbally, or sexually as a child.
These kinds of abuse take away things from our hearts and minds that nothing except God can replace!
The Holy
Spirit has sealed us up and Satan can’t get to us to take us away from
God. Just like the ugly box of candy. The outside had been marred and messed up but
the SEAL had not been broken!
The owner of this box of candy can break this seal, peel off the marred
wrapper and find that there is indeed CANDY and NOT rocks in this box! Praise the Lord for his seal upon our souls!
I closed the night with the question we began with….How about YOUR heart? Is it right with God? I ask the same question to you today. If you don’t know, ask God to reveal the
condition of your heart. Because that IS the thing that counts today and for all of eternity!
After I closed in prayer and sat down, the ladies group presented me with the sweetest Willow Tree figurine I have ever seen! She's called "Wisdom" and she will have an honored place in my home!
May God bless each of you is my prayer!
Marilyn
