September 12, 2011
What Kind of ‘Stuff’ Fills Your Heart?
Holding up a glass, D.L. Moody once asked a group, “How do you get the air out of this empty drinking glass?” Several individuals offered numerous creative and innovative solutions—not one was practical. “It’s simple,” exclaimed Moody as he reached for a pitcher of water, and filled the glass to the brim. “See, all the air is gone.”
What’s filling your life? How do you get the sinful stuff out? We have all heard endless creative and innovative solutions—this discipleship course, this seminar, this teaching, these five steps, on and on. Chances are that none of them will make any lasting change in your Christian walk. As with Moody’s demonstration the answer is simple—fill it with something else.
The first question we must ask ourselves is what we are putting into your lives. Are we pouring in sinful and worldly stuff or are we pouring in Godly substance?
A principle that is true in the physical as well as the spiritual realm is what we take in determines our health. If we eat nothing but junk food, we can’t expect to live a long healthy life. Also, what we put into our hearts will determine our spiritual health.
God gave man five physical senses—sight, sound, smell, touch, and speech. With these we not only take in physical elements, we also take in spiritual influences. Ask yourself these questions with your spiritual health in mind: what do I choose to look at? What do I choose to listen to? Are there certain smells that bring about sinful desires? Do I touch ever something or someone inappropriately?
The sense of speech is our means of output and scripture repeatedly tells us it is an indicator of what is in our hearts. Jesus warns, But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, (Mat 15:18), and on another occasion, for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart (Luke 6:45).
In other words, our speech is a gauge of what we have put into our hearts. Donna has been a cardiac nurse for most of her career. She could determine much about someone’s physical heart by listening with her stethoscope. If you want to know the condition your spiritual heart, listen—listen to what you say. If it doesn’t sound Christ-like then maybe you are putting in the wrong stuff.
Hopefully, you’re already thinking about how you get the wrong stuff out. Remember the way you get air out of a glass. You fill it with something else. For believers, we must fill ourselves with Godly stuff. It begins with taking in the nourishment of His Word. Discipleship and self-help books have their place, but the Christian’s primary resource of healthy heart is scripture. You can use your eyes and read it or you can use your ears and listen to it. Regardless of which, as the Word enters our hearts, it will continually push out the bad. As the Word fills our hearts, His Spirit will also fill our hearts. But note this is a lifelong process. Our flesh, the world, and the devil will never cease using our eyes, our ears, our nose, and our touch to bring sinful stuff back in.
Sustaining Word for the Week:
Ask yourself this week what is filling your heart. If you have sinful stuff there, begin pouring in His Word and His Spirit. And keep administering a sound check—listen to what you say. You’ll notice a change.