8-10-2016

     Proverbs 27:19; “As in water face reflects face, so the heart of man reflects the man”.  

    I think one of the most amazing sights that I have ever witnessed is the sight of a crystal clear mountain lake.  The one that, when it is perfectly calm, could serve as a mirror.  Sometimes the reflection is so precise that it looks like an inverted landscape.  With no ripple of water, you can see the most intricate detail of the trees and the rocks.  The water looks like glass.  It is so smooth that you cannot even imagine anything any smoother.  If a deer walks by on the shore, you can watch its reflection move as well.  I sometimes wonder if a clear mountain lake was the first mirror that people ever used.

    We often hear about our heart in Scriptures.  The ironic thing is that while the world will tell you to “trust your heart” or “follow your heart”; Scriptures doesn’t.  In the Bible we hear about the heart being the source of “evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. (Matt.15:19)” The reason for this is that we view the heart as the source of our “feelings” or our desires.  Feelings and desires are not a good source for our source of direction in our life.  This is especially true when we realize that our sinful nature makes our feelings untrustworthy.

    This is why Scriptures speaks of a new creation or a new heart.  The old sinful heart must be cleansed, by Baptism, and then inhabited by the Holy Spirit.  This is part of the “create in me a clean heart; O, God” taking the heart and removing the sinful nature, making it clean again.  With this pure heart we can live a full life for god.

    But it doesn’t take long for the sinful nature to raise its ugly head; jealousy, anger, lust and slander are just a few emotions or feelings which once again lead us down the path of destruction.  Then once again God forgives us and cleanses us from unrighteousness.  This process occurs and re-occurs throughout our life.  This is why it is important that we don’t rely on our “feelings” when it comes to faith.  Faith is a certainty; it is knowledge and not emotion.  It is the definitive assurance of our salvation because of God’s intervention into our lives.  There is no guess work; there is no “feeling” to trust; we have the certain guarantee of our salvation written in the blood of Jesus. 

   So as we go through life, we need to look into our heart and measure our desires.  Are they ones of malice and lust or are they ones of peace, gentleness and true love?  While these don’t measure our faith, they do reflect our nature and our desire.  Our desire is to cling to God through faith.  That is what it means to be saved.  True faith causes a desire to change.  It may be difficult and we may fall once and a while but we desire to change and to live according to God’s will.  That is the reflection we want to see.

Gracious Lord, too often when we look at our heart we see our sinful desires.  Forgive us and give us the strength to grow in our faith that we may trust in you alone.  Create in me a clean heart O Lord and renew a right spirit within me.  In Your precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret