September 21, 2024 • 18 mins
In this new series we look at our new devotional "Issues of the Heart." We kick things off by sharing some personal stories and biblical insights that reveal the transformation our hearts undergo through Christ.
We also tackle the popular notion of "following your heart" from a Christian viewpoint, emphasizing the importance of discernment and spiritual maturity. Using scriptures we discuss how God aligns our desires with His will, urging listeners to embrace sanctification and extend grace to others.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello and welcome to Simply Edifies podcast.
Our goal is to encourage womenas we navigate the messiness of
life through biblical studies,personal stories and practical
tips that bolster our walk withJesus daily.
Thank you for joining us in ourepisode today.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
We mentioned on our last podcast that we wrote and
have published a book on Amazoncalled Issues of the Heart,
published a book on Amazoncalled Issues of the Heart, and
so we're going to take some timethe next few weeks to just
share some of the devotionals,some of the thoughts we had from
our book.
Not all of them You'll stillwant to go out and get it and
(00:37):
read it for yourself but we aregoing to just cover some of them
.
We kind of picked some of ourfavorites, I think.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Yeah, some of the ones that kind of stood out to
us the most, I guess personally.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Yeah, and just to give you like an idea of what
some of our chapters are, theyall have heart in them not
shocking.
But, there's things like heart,identity, heart attitude, a
proud heart, a praising heart, agiving heart, a focused heart,
a warrior's heart.
(01:13):
So it covers a really broadrange of topics, but it all just
comes down to what is the heartissue?
Yeah, yeah, and so we decidedto start with this first one.
And these devotions we weeither April wrote them or I
wrote them, or some of them arecombined thoughts from both of
(01:34):
us.
But today we're going to talkabout a good heart versus a bad
heart, and this is actuallysomething that I had written
about quite a few years ago,because in it I mentioned that
my children are very young andthey're not quite so young
anymore, but it's honestly oneof the probably one of my
favorite things that I've everwritten, um, and not because
(01:59):
it's super profound or anythinglike that, but because it was
just something that I kind ofneeded to grasp, I guess yeah, I
feel that that the topic is ina lot of ways, just like we've
mentioned about other thingsbefore, there's just kind of the
extreme views on it, and tofind that balance can be very
(02:21):
freeing.
Yes, yes, it was very freeingfor me and it was funny because
it came about from aconversation between my children
and it was just one of thoselike mom moments where you're
like, oh my goodness, they'rejust having a little quarrel,
but it's actually something,actually something kind of deep
(02:50):
at the same time.
So, just to sum it up, my, mygirls are very different.
My oldest daughter is very,like, level-headed and practical
and borderline pessimistic, andmy younger daughter is just
more imaginative and very, verymuch a middle child,
stereotypical middle child, alittle bit more optimistic.
(03:11):
For, for example, one time myoldest daughter said that life's
not fair and like, just getover it, life's not fair.
And my younger daughter waslike, but but we can change that
.
And she really believed in herheart, we could change that,
right?
It's such a perfect example ofthem as people, right, that
(03:34):
little conversation.
But so then I heard my little,my littler one, saying something
about following your heart, andI don't know if she was quoting
a movie or saying something shehad seen on a t-shirt or
something.
But my oldest daughter justwent on a absolute soapbox
(03:56):
tirade about how our hearts arejust a big glob of wickedness
and you should never, everlisten to it.
And I laughed, of course,because it was a very funny
conversation to hear over here,oh, but also I was just made me
(04:19):
stop and think I knew she wastalking about jeremiah 17, 19,
which is the heart is deceitfulabove all things and desperately
wicked.
Who can know it?
Of course that's true.
It's in the Bible, right, it'strue.
And that's a verse we've allwell, I shouldn't say we all,
but I learned as a child, april,I'm sure you are knowing-
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
It's a very, very well preached and taught on
verse for sure.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Yes and so.
So, of course, it's true, yes.
However, it got me thinking.
Is that all the bible saysabout the heart?
Speaker 3 (05:01):
is it?
No, I mean, that's just thething is, is it isn't.
I was thinking about.
You know, when we get baptized,usually the saying is you know
raised to walk in newness oflife, and what comes at
(05:31):
salvation is a new heart and anew life from Christ.
So when we forget that and wejust think about how negative
and wicked and bad we are, itmakes it really hard for us to
actually live and walk in thatnew life, in the grace that God
has given to us.
(05:53):
So, it's just that perspectiveof what.
What part are you looking at?
Do we still have that sinfulnature?
Absolutely 100%.
But, like you said, there'sdefinitely a lot more that we
can learn about who we are inChrist after salvation and what
(06:14):
our hearts are capable of aftersalvation.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Yeah, our hearts are new, like he gives us a new
heart.
Ezekiel 11, 19 and I will givethem one heart and I will put a
new spirit within you and I willtake the stony heart out of
their flesh and will give them aheart of flesh.
That's a completetransformation.
That's being talked about thereand I think that, okay, that's
(06:39):
being talked about there and Ithink that, okay, that's like,
stop right there and realizethat big glob of wickedness
heart is a heart without Christ,right, and so your heart
actually changes and I think we,we kind of have this mindset of
I have to remember all the timethat I'm a sinner and that I'm
wicked, right, and of course, Idon't think we, I don't actually
(07:03):
think that's what Christ hasfor us.
I really don't, for many, manyreasons that we could talk about
probably a whole nother podcast, but there's so many verses
where God talks about how he haschanged and renewed our hearts,
and so it is okay to have to,to not carry that weight of I am
a sinner, because you will bereminded in your daily life that
(07:26):
you are a sinner, right, youdon't need to carry that like a
martyr spirit of, oh, I'm awicked, human, human Cause.
You're not anymore.
You have the righteousness ofChrist, and it's a hard concept
to fully grasp and I understandthat and I can't even pretend
that I fully have it grasped.
(07:46):
However, it is true.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Yeah, and just along the lines of you know what you
put in is what will come out.
So, yes, as a believer, we aredefinitely given a new heart, we
are given a new, new life inChrist.
The transformation on this sideof heaven, like, is going to be
(08:10):
slow and it's going to be agrowth process, right?
So does that mean that everydecision after salvation that
you make is going to be theright one?
Absolutely not for sure, no, no.
And the the more our heartbecomes unified with Christ
through the scriptures andthrough our fellowship with him
and through our relationshipwith him, you know, that is when
(08:34):
we will see the transformationmore and more is when we will
see the transformation more andmore.
And you know the.
I think the saying of followyour heart, or whatever, is one
of the reasons why, inChristianity, we hear so often
well, the heart of death,desperately wicked and deceitful
, and who can know?
And all of that because it iscombating that truth, that that
statement of follow your heart,just do, which is, you know,
(08:59):
just do whatever you want.
Basically, from the world'sperspective, right, do what's
going to make you happy, right.
And we know that that idea andthat thinking and that logic is
not biblical, but that's notwhat we're saying.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
We're not saying that we need to follow our fleshly
desires and follow our, you knowso that actually is something
that I think is reallyinteresting, because there's
other parts, there's anotherverse that says that God gives
us the desires of our hearts,and I really believe that he's
saying he puts his desires inour heart.
And so you, there has to bethat maturity and discernment to
(09:42):
say am I living with this?
Like, regenerate a new heart?
Is that what?
What I'm following?
Not following, but if, if youever there are times where God
is going to put something onyour heart to do and to say, and
maybe even passions and thingsthat you love that you can
follow for lack of a better word, if you're, if they're in line
(10:04):
with what Christ wants for you,right.
So let me read.
I'm not going to go through allof the things because you'll
just have to get the book, butour hearts can be upright In
Psalm seven.
Our hearts can be upright.
In psalm 7 it says my defensesof god who saveth the upright in
(10:25):
heart.
So it is a thing to be uprightin heart.
It is a thing to have goodtreasures come out of your heart
, because in luke 6, 45, it saysa good man, out of the good
treasures of his heart, bringethforth that which is good.
And an evil man, out of theevil treasures of his heart,
bringeth forth that which isgood.
And an evil man, out of theevil treasures of his heart,
bringeth forth that which isevil.
For out of the abundance of theheart, his mouth speaketh.
So there can be good things inyour heart and there can be bad
(10:50):
things in your heart, but jesuschanges our hearts and that's
I've, when I I think I've sharedthis before, but when I talk to
kids about salvation, that'show I've kind of changed some of
my language.
When I'm talking to them,that's just something that I've
started.
When I share my part of mytestimony, I say Jesus changed
my heart when I was four yearsold and he's continued to change
(11:14):
my heart since then and Iremember I had a little student
come up and be like Jesuschanged my heart and that's, it
was so sweet and I think that itkind of is a little easier for
little minds to grasp than Jesuslike lives inside of me, or
(11:34):
right, you know like, because Iremember being a little confused
by that.
Not every kid is I.
I was probably a little tooliteral to be honest, but right
now, yeah, he was just like.
I hope he's not bored right, wehave a tv, yeah, anyway.
So, um, you know, jesus doeschange our hearts and our hearts
(11:56):
can be led by the spirit.
And so it's more of of tryingto keep your heart in line with
the things that that God has foryou and having your heart being
open to being changed.
Right, because I do believethat you can be staved and still
be resistant to sanctification.
(12:18):
Oh, absolutely, you cannot beready to have your heart changed
.
You can be kind of content withyour salvation and not have a
desire for growth.
I don't think you can live afull Christian life and be like
that.
But we've got, I mean, I canlook back at periods of my life
where I did not have thecapacity for growth for that
moment, you know.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Yeah, our decisions, you know they.
They definitely play a role inour ability to hear the Holy
spirit working in us and throughus and in our heart.
So when we, as the Bible says,we can quench the spirit.
When we do quench the spirit,obviously you know there's a
(13:00):
disconnect between ourselves andGod and therefore we are just
following the old man, the oldheart and those, those desires
and the flesh and stuff.
Yeah, but I I do think that,overall, to to be reminded on a
daily basis that God changed us.
(13:21):
We are not who we once were.
We have the Holy spirit insideof us that is teaching us and
changing us and we arecontinually that is the process
becoming more like Christ.
So therefore, we can trust notour hearts, but the God who has
(13:42):
changed our hearts, the guy whois living in us and wants to
work through us.
So, you know that's and wants towork through us.
So you know that's an importantaspect that I think we need to
remember.
We don't need to be constantlybeating ourselves over the head
with how wicked we are, becausethat's not remembering the grace
(14:04):
that God has upon us every dayand it makes it that much harder
to show grace on other peoplewhen we don't remember the grace
that God has on us.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
That's very, very true.
I think there is a part of usthat likes the religion of
feeling guilty and kind ofworking our way out of that
guilt.
I think that that's like a justa common, we don't know
Christians wouldn't say.
We always're always like oh,it's not religion, it's a
relationship and all that stuff.
But there's this aspect of justlike I can work through this
(14:37):
myself, I can like I will onlyhave a good relationship with
God.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
It is not a prerequisite for it with God and
I think it's just, we kind offlip it around sometimes and we
don't live in the grace.
So therefore we don't havefreedom and we're very much in
(15:06):
fear, in bondage and, like Isaid, we can't extend grace
towards other people.
If you find yourself reallystruggling to find and I can be
like this cause, I'm a very I'mmore like your eldest daughter,
I'm very black and white sort ofperson.
So I see you know, oh well,that's right, that's wrong, and
you need to do what's right.
(15:26):
And when you're not doingwhat's right, therefore you're
out of grace with me or out ofgrace with God.
You know what I'm saying?
Like just that more dogmatictendency and therefore I do not
show grace towards othersbecause I don't receive grace
myself.
Um, and that's, you know,definitely something where you
(15:49):
have to mature and that'sallowing your tendencies of the
old man to take over and worktowards a good relationship with
God.
And I can't do, I can't worktowards a good relationship with
God.
I have to rely on him.
I have to rely on his work inme.
Yes, there's choices involvedin that, but the more you just
(16:10):
rely on him, the easier it gets.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
There's that opposite end of the spectrum of you know
being more.
Follow your heart and like youknow, the more um spiritually
not.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Oh, god loves me, so I can do whatever I want and and
I'll still pray to him and havea good relationship with them.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Yeah, and I've got a good heart, like I'm a good
person, so I'm going to makegreat choices and I don't even
need really God's guidance orhis leading.
I can just do what I want, andthat's.
Neither of those things arewhat's right, and I definitely
tend more on that end of things.
Just why we're friends.
Right, gotta have that balanceyeah, but I actually what I
(16:54):
wrote down and I think is reallythe heart of it, not to be
funny, um is we do not need tobe afraid of our hearts and you
said something very similar tothat but we need to give our
hearts to Jesus and let himtransform them.
Because I had to sit down withmy girls after that conversation
, you know, and talk themthrough it and be like yes, yes,
(17:19):
but also, and it was such agood thing for me.
I don't even know if theyremember it, but I don't even
know if it was really about them.
I think it was more about mehaving this moment of like whoa,
this is a heavy thing that mychild is saying.
She's walking around saying I ama big, my heart, the core part
(17:41):
of me, yeah, is a big glob ofwickedness, when she, even at
that young age, had alreadygiven her heart to Jesus.
And I, just, all of a sudden, Icould just see like the
repercussions down the road andand again, it wasn't a super
serious conversation and but itturned into one because, like,
this is not, this isn't a joke,this isn't a funny little thing,
(18:02):
this is actually reallyimportant and God does not leave
our hearts a big glob ofwickedness.
He's.
He's given us a new heart andwe just have to learn to love
him more and to trust him more,and just give him more of our
heart every day.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Yeah, so true.
Well, that is just a littleglimpse of one of our studies
here.
In our devotional we, like Estysaid we will do a few more that
we've picked out in thefollowing episodes, so we hope
that you will stick around forthose.
You can find this book onAmazon and if you just look up
(18:43):
issues of the heart, a 31 daydevotional by simply edify, you
should find it, and we arethankful that you are listening.
Hello and welcome to Simply Edifies podcast.
Our goal is to encourage womenas we navigate the messiness of
life through biblical studies,personal stories and practical
tips that bolster our walk withJesus daily.
Thank you for joining us in ourepisode today.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
We mentioned on our last podcast that we wrote and
have published a book on Amazoncalled Issues of the Heart,
published a book on Amazoncalled Issues of the Heart, and
so we're going to take some timethe next few weeks to just
share some of the devotionals,some of the thoughts we had from
our book.
Not all of them You'll stillwant to go out and get it and
(00:37):
read it for yourself but we aregoing to just cover some of them
.
We kind of picked some of ourfavorites, I think.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Yeah, some of the ones that kind of stood out to
us the most, I guess personally.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Yeah, and just to give you like an idea of what
some of our chapters are, theyall have heart in them not
shocking.
But, there's things like heart,identity, heart attitude, a
proud heart, a praising heart, agiving heart, a focused heart,
a warrior's heart.
(01:13):
So it covers a really broadrange of topics, but it all just
comes down to what is the heartissue?
Yeah, yeah, and so we decidedto start with this first one.
And these devotions we weeither April wrote them or I
wrote them, or some of them arecombined thoughts from both of
(01:34):
us.
But today we're going to talkabout a good heart versus a bad
heart, and this is actuallysomething that I had written
about quite a few years ago,because in it I mentioned that
my children are very young andthey're not quite so young
anymore, but it's honestly oneof the probably one of my
favorite things that I've everwritten, um, and not because
(01:59):
it's super profound or anythinglike that, but because it was
just something that I kind ofneeded to grasp, I guess yeah, I
feel that that the topic is ina lot of ways, just like we've
mentioned about other thingsbefore, there's just kind of the
extreme views on it, and tofind that balance can be very
(02:21):
freeing.
Yes, yes, it was very freeingfor me and it was funny because
it came about from aconversation between my children
and it was just one of thoselike mom moments where you're
like, oh my goodness, they'rejust having a little quarrel,
but it's actually something,actually something kind of deep
(02:50):
at the same time.
So, just to sum it up, my, mygirls are very different.
My oldest daughter is very,like, level-headed and practical
and borderline pessimistic, andmy younger daughter is just
more imaginative and very, verymuch a middle child,
stereotypical middle child, alittle bit more optimistic.
(03:11):
For, for example, one time myoldest daughter said that life's
not fair and like, just getover it, life's not fair.
And my younger daughter waslike, but but we can change that
.
And she really believed in herheart, we could change that,
right?
It's such a perfect example ofthem as people, right, that
(03:34):
little conversation.
But so then I heard my little,my littler one, saying something
about following your heart, andI don't know if she was quoting
a movie or saying something shehad seen on a t-shirt or
something.
But my oldest daughter justwent on a absolute soapbox
(03:56):
tirade about how our hearts arejust a big glob of wickedness
and you should never, everlisten to it.
And I laughed, of course,because it was a very funny
conversation to hear over here,oh, but also I was just made me
(04:19):
stop and think I knew she wastalking about jeremiah 17, 19,
which is the heart is deceitfulabove all things and desperately
wicked.
Who can know it?
Of course that's true.
It's in the Bible, right, it'strue.
And that's a verse we've allwell, I shouldn't say we all,
but I learned as a child, april,I'm sure you are knowing-
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
It's a very, very well preached and taught on
verse for sure.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Yes and so.
So, of course, it's true, yes.
However, it got me thinking.
Is that all the bible saysabout the heart?
Speaker 3 (05:01):
is it?
No, I mean, that's just thething is, is it isn't.
I was thinking about.
You know, when we get baptized,usually the saying is you know
raised to walk in newness oflife, and what comes at
(05:31):
salvation is a new heart and anew life from Christ.
So when we forget that and wejust think about how negative
and wicked and bad we are, itmakes it really hard for us to
actually live and walk in thatnew life, in the grace that God
has given to us.
(05:53):
So, it's just that perspectiveof what.
What part are you looking at?
Do we still have that sinfulnature?
Absolutely 100%.
But, like you said, there'sdefinitely a lot more that we
can learn about who we are inChrist after salvation and what
(06:14):
our hearts are capable of aftersalvation.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Yeah, our hearts are new, like he gives us a new
heart.
Ezekiel 11, 19 and I will givethem one heart and I will put a
new spirit within you and I willtake the stony heart out of
their flesh and will give them aheart of flesh.
That's a completetransformation.
That's being talked about thereand I think that, okay, that's
(06:39):
being talked about there and Ithink that, okay, that's like,
stop right there and realizethat big glob of wickedness
heart is a heart without Christ,right, and so your heart
actually changes and I think we,we kind of have this mindset of
I have to remember all the timethat I'm a sinner and that I'm
wicked, right, and of course, Idon't think we, I don't actually
(07:03):
think that's what Christ hasfor us.
I really don't, for many, manyreasons that we could talk about
probably a whole nother podcast, but there's so many verses
where God talks about how he haschanged and renewed our hearts,
and so it is okay to have to,to not carry that weight of I am
a sinner, because you will bereminded in your daily life that
(07:26):
you are a sinner, right, youdon't need to carry that like a
martyr spirit of, oh, I'm awicked, human, human Cause.
You're not anymore.
You have the righteousness ofChrist, and it's a hard concept
to fully grasp and I understandthat and I can't even pretend
that I fully have it grasped.
(07:46):
However, it is true.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Yeah, and just along the lines of you know what you
put in is what will come out.
So, yes, as a believer, we aredefinitely given a new heart, we
are given a new, new life inChrist.
The transformation on this sideof heaven, like, is going to be
(08:10):
slow and it's going to be agrowth process, right?
So does that mean that everydecision after salvation that
you make is going to be theright one?
Absolutely not for sure, no, no.
And the the more our heartbecomes unified with Christ
through the scriptures andthrough our fellowship with him
and through our relationshipwith him, you know, that is when
(08:34):
we will see the transformationmore and more is when we will
see the transformation more andmore.
And you know the.
I think the saying of followyour heart, or whatever, is one
of the reasons why, inChristianity, we hear so often
well, the heart of death,desperately wicked and deceitful
, and who can know?
And all of that because it iscombating that truth, that that
statement of follow your heart,just do, which is, you know,
(08:59):
just do whatever you want.
Basically, from the world'sperspective, right, do what's
going to make you happy, right.
And we know that that idea andthat thinking and that logic is
not biblical, but that's notwhat we're saying.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
We're not saying that we need to follow our fleshly
desires and follow our, you knowso that actually is something
that I think is reallyinteresting, because there's
other parts, there's anotherverse that says that God gives
us the desires of our hearts,and I really believe that he's
saying he puts his desires inour heart.
And so you, there has to bethat maturity and discernment to
(09:42):
say am I living with this?
Like, regenerate a new heart?
Is that what?
What I'm following?
Not following, but if, if youever there are times where God
is going to put something onyour heart to do and to say, and
maybe even passions and thingsthat you love that you can
follow for lack of a better word, if you're, if they're in line
(10:04):
with what Christ wants for you,right.
So let me read.
I'm not going to go through allof the things because you'll
just have to get the book, butour hearts can be upright In
Psalm seven.
Our hearts can be upright.
In psalm 7 it says my defensesof god who saveth the upright in
(10:25):
heart.
So it is a thing to be uprightin heart.
It is a thing to have goodtreasures come out of your heart
, because in luke 6, 45, it saysa good man, out of the good
treasures of his heart, bringethforth that which is good.
And an evil man, out of theevil treasures of his heart,
bringeth forth that which isgood.
And an evil man, out of theevil treasures of his heart,
bringeth forth that which isevil.
For out of the abundance of theheart, his mouth speaketh.
So there can be good things inyour heart and there can be bad
(10:50):
things in your heart, but jesuschanges our hearts and that's
I've, when I I think I've sharedthis before, but when I talk to
kids about salvation, that'show I've kind of changed some of
my language.
When I'm talking to them,that's just something that I've
started.
When I share my part of mytestimony, I say Jesus changed
my heart when I was four yearsold and he's continued to change
(11:14):
my heart since then and Iremember I had a little student
come up and be like Jesuschanged my heart and that's, it
was so sweet and I think that itkind of is a little easier for
little minds to grasp than Jesuslike lives inside of me, or
(11:34):
right, you know like, because Iremember being a little confused
by that.
Not every kid is I.
I was probably a little tooliteral to be honest, but right
now, yeah, he was just like.
I hope he's not bored right, wehave a tv, yeah, anyway.
So, um, you know, jesus doeschange our hearts and our hearts
(11:56):
can be led by the spirit.
And so it's more of of tryingto keep your heart in line with
the things that that God has foryou and having your heart being
open to being changed.
Right, because I do believethat you can be staved and still
be resistant to sanctification.
(12:18):
Oh, absolutely, you cannot beready to have your heart changed
.
You can be kind of content withyour salvation and not have a
desire for growth.
I don't think you can live afull Christian life and be like
that.
But we've got, I mean, I canlook back at periods of my life
where I did not have thecapacity for growth for that
moment, you know.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Yeah, our decisions, you know they.
They definitely play a role inour ability to hear the Holy
spirit working in us and throughus and in our heart.
So when we, as the Bible says,we can quench the spirit.
When we do quench the spirit,obviously you know there's a
(13:00):
disconnect between ourselves andGod and therefore we are just
following the old man, the oldheart and those, those desires
and the flesh and stuff.
Yeah, but I I do think that,overall, to to be reminded on a
daily basis that God changed us.
(13:21):
We are not who we once were.
We have the Holy spirit insideof us that is teaching us and
changing us and we arecontinually that is the process
becoming more like Christ.
So therefore, we can trust notour hearts, but the God who has
(13:42):
changed our hearts, the guy whois living in us and wants to
work through us.
So, you know that's and wants towork through us.
So you know that's an importantaspect that I think we need to
remember.
We don't need to be constantlybeating ourselves over the head
with how wicked we are, becausethat's not remembering the grace
(14:04):
that God has upon us every dayand it makes it that much harder
to show grace on other peoplewhen we don't remember the grace
that God has on us.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
That's very, very true.
I think there is a part of usthat likes the religion of
feeling guilty and kind ofworking our way out of that
guilt.
I think that that's like a justa common, we don't know
Christians wouldn't say.
We always're always like oh,it's not religion, it's a
relationship and all that stuff.
But there's this aspect of justlike I can work through this
(14:37):
myself, I can like I will onlyhave a good relationship with
God.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
It is not a prerequisite for it with God and
I think it's just, we kind offlip it around sometimes and we
don't live in the grace.
So therefore we don't havefreedom and we're very much in
(15:06):
fear, in bondage and, like Isaid, we can't extend grace
towards other people.
If you find yourself reallystruggling to find and I can be
like this cause, I'm a very I'mmore like your eldest daughter,
I'm very black and white sort ofperson.
So I see you know, oh well,that's right, that's wrong, and
you need to do what's right.
(15:26):
And when you're not doingwhat's right, therefore you're
out of grace with me or out ofgrace with God.
You know what I'm saying?
Like just that more dogmatictendency and therefore I do not
show grace towards othersbecause I don't receive grace
myself.
Um, and that's, you know,definitely something where you
(15:49):
have to mature and that'sallowing your tendencies of the
old man to take over and worktowards a good relationship with
God.
And I can't do, I can't worktowards a good relationship with
God.
I have to rely on him.
I have to rely on his work inme.
Yes, there's choices involvedin that, but the more you just
(16:10):
rely on him, the easier it gets.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
There's that opposite end of the spectrum of you know
being more.
Follow your heart and like youknow, the more um spiritually
not.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Oh, god loves me, so I can do whatever I want and and
I'll still pray to him and havea good relationship with them.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Yeah, and I've got a good heart, like I'm a good
person, so I'm going to makegreat choices and I don't even
need really God's guidance orhis leading.
I can just do what I want, andthat's.
Neither of those things arewhat's right, and I definitely
tend more on that end of things.
Just why we're friends.
Right, gotta have that balanceyeah, but I actually what I
(16:54):
wrote down and I think is reallythe heart of it, not to be
funny, um is we do not need tobe afraid of our hearts and you
said something very similar tothat but we need to give our
hearts to Jesus and let himtransform them.
Because I had to sit down withmy girls after that conversation
, you know, and talk themthrough it and be like yes, yes,
(17:19):
but also, and it was such agood thing for me.
I don't even know if theyremember it, but I don't even
know if it was really about them.
I think it was more about mehaving this moment of like whoa,
this is a heavy thing that mychild is saying.
She's walking around saying I ama big, my heart, the core part
(17:41):
of me, yeah, is a big glob ofwickedness, when she, even at
that young age, had alreadygiven her heart to Jesus.
And I, just, all of a sudden, Icould just see like the
repercussions down the road andand again, it wasn't a super
serious conversation and but itturned into one because, like,
this is not, this isn't a joke,this isn't a funny little thing,
(18:02):
this is actually reallyimportant and God does not leave
our hearts a big glob ofwickedness.
He's.
He's given us a new heart andwe just have to learn to love
him more and to trust him more,and just give him more of our
heart every day.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Yeah, so true.
Well, that is just a littleglimpse of one of our studies
here.
In our devotional we, like Estysaid we will do a few more that
we've picked out in thefollowing episodes, so we hope
that you will stick around forthose.
You can find this book onAmazon and if you just look up
(18:43):
issues of the heart, a 31 daydevotional by simply edify, you
should find it, and we arethankful that you are listening.
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