Out of the Abundance of Your Heart

Sitting through church anxious and waiting for it to end is no way to praise God. We shouldn’t forsake our assembly, especially after the crazy year we just had. It is easy to passively go through the motions of “playing church” and never really praise God for who He is and what He’s done. Finding an application for our daily lives from preaching can be easy – it is spoon-fed after all. But how often do we walk out the doors of our churches and never even think about the sermon again? Suddenly, we’re in the middle of the week, stuck in a situation where we could use the teaching that we had swept under the rug of our minds.

Sometimes it is hard to even remember what we learned. But when there’s a sermon that really applied to our lives, we’ll remember it for a while. We can apply it and we start walking it out. At least for me, it is a lot easier to walk out a teaching than to talk it out. I can help the needy, be kind to my neighbor, and avoid foul language. These are all things that the world considers acceptable, too. But when it comes to talking it out – as in verbally telling someone about my experience with Jesus and praising God publicly – I tend to clam up. As an extravert, I can talk about just about anything. My faith is still somewhat sensitive for casual conversation, and that should not be the case. It’s my daily life. If Jesus is as important to me as I think He is, then the words of my mouth will reflect it.

               Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

                                                                                                         (Matt 12:34)

When I’m struggling to talk about Jesus to others, alarm bells should go off. It means don’t have as much Jesus in my heart as I should. I know that God will never leave or forsake me (Deut. 31:6) and the Holy Spirit lives inside me (Rom. 8:9.) But in my daily life, I know that I don’t have thoughts, conversations, music, and friends that point me to Jesus like they should.

It can be hard to fight back the pressures and noise of the world to “make time” for Jesus. Western culture seems to value a life lived in the fast lane. The more we are “on the go”, the less we prioritize our Creator and our relationship with our Savior. In this way, society begins to get a foothold in our lives and drive a wedge between us and our Creator. We tend to get so caught up in the “now” that we forget to praise God for what He’s done for us. We know according to Hebrews 13:15 that we should bring the “sacrifice of praise to God continually… [with] the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.”

As Joel Mudamalle said on the Proverbs 31 podcast, “Your mission and work for God is supposed to be one characterized by the firmness of faith, but if your life, words, and actions don’t represent that, then it’s an issue of fidelity to your Savior.”

Ouch.

It’s tough to hear reproof. The small things we compromise on and let slip into our lives are the places where the enemy gains traction. Depression, anxiety, and fear can all start to creep in when the enemy is able to capture any corner of our being. Letting these small things build a wall of division between us and God will never end well. We must be consciously re-evaluating everything we allow in our lives and see how it lines up with Scripture.

When we begin to start soaking in the right things, the outflow in our lives begin to reflect what God has commanded us to do. We then begin to see a transformation in our relationship with our Creator, how we relate to others, and even the attitudes we carry.

The best times in my relationship with God were when I had fully devoted my heart to Him. Everything about my life changed for the better, and I saw improvement even in areas I thought were healthy. My thoughts weren’t straying as easily. I gave people the benefit of the doubt rather than flying off the handle. I felt content and at peace, even in the middle of the most hectic and stressful days.

So what changed? In short: what I was focusing on. When my eyes get off Jesus and I neglect my responsibilities, my life tends to reflect that. Serving Christ with your whole heart is not a decision you will ever regret.

Below, I’ve listed some questions and action steps you can take in your personal life to evaluate where you’re at right now. This is where we can really apply things into our lives and see change!

 

Feet for Your Faith

List out about how much time you spend a day on different activities. (Ex: work/school, social media/games, time with God, activities, etc.)

What do you spend most time on? Least?

What is something you struggle with on a consistent basis? (Ex: negative thought patterns, anger, anxiety, depression, etc.)

What is something you could change about the way you allocate your time?

Make a plan of how you will alter your habits this week!