In Christendom today there are thousands of professing Christians against whom
little or nothing in the way of fault could be found, so far as their outward
lives are concerned. They live moral, clean, upright, honest lives, while at
the same time the state of their hearts is totally neglected. It is not
sufficient, only to bring our outward deportment into harmony with the
revealed will of God. He holds us accountable for what goes on inside,
and requires us to keep check on the springs of our actions, the motives
which inspire and the principles which regulate us. God requires "truth in
the inward parts." Christ has enjoined us to, "Be careful,
or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the
anxieties of life."
If I do not look within, how then shall I be able to ascertain
whether I possess that poverty of spirit, mourning for unholiness, meekness,
hungering and thirsting after righteousness and purity of heart upon which the
Savior pronounces His benediction?
We must remember that salvation itself is both subjective and
objective, for it consists not only of what Christ did FOR His people but also
what He by the Holy Spirit did IN them. I have no evidence whatever of my
justification, apart from my regeneration and sanctification. The one who can
say "I am crucified with Christ" judicially, can also add "Christ lives in me"
(experimentally), and my living by faith in Him is proof that "He loved me and
gave himself for me."
The heart is the center of man's moral nature, of the
personality; it equals the whole inner man, it is the fount out of which
everything else comes, and is the seat of his thoughts and of his affections and
of his will. To guard the heart means that we should live
to the glory of God in every respect; that His glory should be the supreme
desire of our life, that we desire to know Him, love Him and serve Him.
[A.W. Pink]
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Psalm 51:6 ... Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
Luke 21:34 ... And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.
Matthew 5:8 ... Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Galatians 2:20 ... I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Proverbs 4:23 ... Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.❤
