Simply Edify
We are Simply Edify. Our mission is to help strengthen your walk with the Lord. Our goal is to encourage women as we navigate the messiness of life through Biblical studies, personal stories, and practical tips that bolster our walk with Jesus daily.
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Simply Edify
Good Heart or Bad Heart?
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.
Hello and welcome to Simply Edifies podcast. Our goal is to encourage women as we navigate the messiness of life through biblical studies, personal stories and practical tips that bolster our walk with Jesus daily. Thank you for joining us in our episode today.
Speaker 2:We mentioned on our last podcast that we wrote and have published a book on Amazon called Issues of the Heart, published a book on Amazon called Issues of the Heart, and so we're going to take some time the 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 still want to go out and get it and read it for yourself but we are going to just cover some of them. We kind of picked some of our favorites, I think.
Speaker 3:Yeah, some of the ones that kind of stood out to us the most, I guess personally.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and just to give you like an idea of what some of our chapters are, they all have heart in them not shocking.
Speaker 2:But, there's things like heart, identity, heart attitude, a proud heart, a praising heart, a giving heart, a focused heart, a warrior's heart.
Speaker 2:So it covers a really broad range of topics, but it all just comes down to what is the heart issue? Yeah, yeah, and so we decided to start with this first one. And these devotions we we either April wrote them or I wrote them, or some of them are combined thoughts from both of us. But today we're going to talk about a good heart versus a bad heart, and this is actually something that I had written about quite a few years ago, because in it I mentioned that my children are very young and they're not quite so young anymore, but it's honestly one of the probably one of my favorite things that I've ever written, um, and not because it's super profound or anything like that, but because it was just something that I kind of needed to grasp, I guess yeah, I feel that that the topic is in a lot of ways, just like we've mentioned about other things before, there's just kind of the extreme views on it, and to find that balance can be very freeing.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, it was very freeing for me and it was funny because it came about from a conversation between my children and it was just one of those like mom moments where you're like, oh my goodness, they're just having a little quarrel, but it's actually something, actually something kind of deep at the same time. So, just to sum it up, my, my girls are very different. My oldest daughter is very, like, level-headed and practical and borderline pessimistic, and my younger daughter is just more imaginative and very, very much a middle child, stereotypical middle child, a little bit more optimistic. For, for example, one time my oldest daughter said that life's not fair and like, just get over it, life's not fair. And my younger daughter was like, but but we can change that. And she really believed in her heart, we could change that, right? It's such a perfect example of them as people, right, that little conversation.
Speaker 2:But so then I heard my little, my littler one, saying something about following your heart, and I don't know if she was quoting a movie or saying something she had seen on a t-shirt or something. But my oldest daughter just went on a absolute soapbox tirade about how our hearts are just a big glob of wickedness and you should never, ever listen 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 stop and think I knew she was talking about jeremiah 17, 19, which is the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Of course that's true. It's in the Bible, right, it's true. And that's a verse we've all well, I shouldn't say we all, but I learned as a child, april, I'm sure you are knowing- Absolutely.
Speaker 3:It's a very, very well preached and taught on verse for sure.
Speaker 2:Yes and so. So, of course, it's true, yes. However, it got me thinking. Is that all the bible says about the heart?
Speaker 3:is it? No, I mean, that's just the thing 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 of life, and what comes at salvation is a new heart and a new life from Christ. So when we forget that and we just think about how negative and wicked and bad we are, it makes it really hard for us to actually live and walk in that new life, in the grace that God has given to us.
Speaker 3:So, it's just that perspective of what. What part are you looking at? Do we still have that sinful nature? Absolutely 100%. But, like you said, there's definitely a lot more that we can learn about who we are in Christ after salvation and what our hearts are capable of after salvation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, our hearts are new, like he gives us a new heart. Ezekiel 11, 19 and I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within you and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and will give them a heart of flesh. That's a complete transformation. That's being talked about there and I think that, okay, that's being talked about there and I think that, okay, that's like, stop right there and realize that 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 time that I'm a sinner and that I'm wicked, right, and of course, I don't think we, I don't actually think that's what Christ has for us.
Speaker 2:I really don't, for many, many reasons that we could talk about probably a whole nother podcast, but there's so many verses where God talks about how he has changed 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 be reminded in your daily life that you are a sinner, right, you don't need to carry that like a martyr spirit of, oh, I'm a wicked, human, human Cause. You're not anymore. You have the righteousness of Christ, and it's a hard concept to fully grasp and I understand that and I can't even pretend that I fully have it grasped. However, it is true.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and just along the lines of you know what you put in is what will come out.
Speaker 3:So, yes, as a believer, we are definitely given a new heart, we are given a new, new life in Christ. The transformation on this side of heaven, like, is going to be slow and it's going to be a growth process, right? So does that mean that every decision after salvation that you make is going to be the right one? Absolutely not for sure, no, no. And the the more our heart becomes unified with Christ through the scriptures and through our fellowship with him and through our relationship with him, you know, that is when we will see the transformation more and more is when we will see the transformation more and more. And you know the.
Speaker 3:I think the saying of follow your heart, or whatever, is one of the reasons why, in Christianity, we hear so often well, the heart of death, desperately wicked and deceitful, and who can know? And all of that because it is combating that truth, that that statement of follow your heart, just do, which is, you know, just do whatever you want. Basically, from the world's perspective, right, do what's going to make you happy, right. And we know that that idea and that thinking and that logic is not biblical, but that's not what we're saying.
Speaker 2:We're not saying that we need to follow our fleshly desires and follow our, you know so that actually is something that I think is really interesting, because there's other parts, there's another verse that says that God gives us the desires of our hearts, and I really believe that he's saying he puts his desires in our heart. And so you, there has to be that maturity and discernment to say am I living with this? Like, regenerate a new heart? Is that what? What I'm following? Not following, but if, if you ever there are times where God is going to put something on your heart to do and to say, and maybe even passions and things that you love that you can follow for lack of a better word, if you're, if they're in line with what Christ wants for you, right. So let me read.
Speaker 2:I'm not going to go through all of the things because you'll just have to get the book, but our hearts can be upright In Psalm seven. Our hearts can be upright. In psalm 7 it says my defenses of god who saveth the upright in heart. So it is a thing to be upright in heart. It is a thing to have good treasures come out of your heart, because in luke 6, 45, it says a good man, out of the good treasures of his heart, bringeth forth that which is good. And an evil man, out of the evil treasures of his heart, bringeth forth that which is good. And an evil man, out of the evil treasures of his heart, bringeth forth that which is evil. For out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaketh.
Speaker 2:So there can be good things in your heart and there can be bad things in your heart, but jesus changes our hearts and that's I've, when I I think I've shared this before, but when I talk to kids about salvation, that's how 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 my testimony, I say Jesus changed my heart when I was four years old and he's continued to change my heart since then and I remember I had a little student come up and be like Jesus changed my heart and that's, it was so sweet and I think that it kind of is a little easier for little minds to grasp than Jesus like lives inside of me, or right, you know like, because I remember being a little confused by that. Not every kid is I. I was probably a little too literal to be honest, but right now, yeah, he was just like.
Speaker 2:I hope he's not bored right, we have a tv, yeah, anyway. So, um, you know, jesus does change our hearts and our hearts can be led by the spirit. And so it's more of of trying to keep your heart in line with the things that that God has for you and having your heart being open to being changed. Right, because I do believe that you can be staved and still be resistant to sanctification. Oh, absolutely, you cannot be ready to have your heart changed. You can be kind of content with your salvation and not have a desire for growth. I don't think you can live a full Christian life and be like that. But we've got, I mean, I can look back at periods of my life where I did not have the capacity for growth for that moment, you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, our decisions, you know they. They definitely play a role in our ability to hear the Holy spirit working in us and through us and in our heart.
Speaker 3:So when we, as the Bible says, we can quench the spirit. When we do quench the spirit, obviously you know there's a disconnect between ourselves and God and therefore we are just following the old man, the old heart 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. We are not who we once were. We have the Holy spirit inside of us that is teaching us and changing us and we are continually that is the process becoming more like Christ. So therefore, we can trust not our hearts, but the God who has changed our hearts, the guy who is living in us and wants to work through us.
Speaker 3:So, you know that's and wants to work through us. So you know that's an important aspect that I think we need to remember. We don't need to be constantly beating ourselves over the head with how wicked we are, because that's not remembering the grace that God has upon us every day and it makes it that much harder to show grace on other people when we don't remember the grace that God has on us.
Speaker 2:That's very, very true. I think there is a part of us that likes the religion of feeling guilty and kind of working our way out of that guilt. I think that that's like a just a 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 just like I can work through this myself, I can like I will only have a good relationship with God.
Speaker 3:It is not a prerequisite for it with God and I think it's just, we kind of flip it around sometimes and we don't live in the grace. So therefore we don't have freedom and we're very much in fear, in bondage and, like I said, we can't extend grace towards other people. If you find yourself really struggling to find and I can be like this cause, I'm a very I'm more like your eldest daughter, I'm very black and white sort of person. So I see you know, oh well, that's right, that's wrong, and you need to do what's right. And when you're not doing what's right, therefore you're out of grace with me or out of grace with God. You know what I'm saying? Like just that more dogmatic tendency and therefore I do not show grace towards others because I don't receive grace myself. Um, and that's, you know, definitely something where you have to mature and that's allowing your tendencies of the old man to take over and work towards a good relationship with God.
Speaker 3:And I can't do, I can't work towards a good relationship with God. I have to rely on him. I have to rely on his work in me. Yes, there's choices involved in that, but the more you just rely on him, the easier it gets.
Speaker 2:There's that opposite end of the spectrum of you know being more. Follow your heart and like you know, the more um spiritually not.
Speaker 3:Oh, god loves me, so I can do whatever I want and and I'll still pray to him and have a good relationship with them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I've got a good heart, like I'm a good person, so I'm going to make great choices and I don't even need really God's guidance or his leading. I can just do what I want, and that's. Neither of those things are what's right, and I definitely tend more on that end of things. Just why we're friends.
Speaker 2:Right, gotta have that balance yeah, but I actually what I wrote down and I think is really the heart of it, not to be funny, um is we do not need to be afraid of our hearts and you said something very similar to that but we need to give our hearts to Jesus and let him transform them. Because I had to sit down with my girls after that conversation, you know, and talk them through it and be like yes, yes, but also, and it was such a good thing for me. I don't even know if they remember it, but I don't even know if it was really about them. I think it was more about me having this moment of like whoa, this is a heavy thing that my child is saying.
Speaker 2:She's walking around saying I am a big, my heart, the core part of me, yeah, is a big glob of wickedness, when she, even at that young age, had already given her heart to Jesus. And I, just, all of a sudden, I could just see like the repercussions down the road and and again, it wasn't a super serious conversation and but it turned into one because, like, this is not, this isn't a joke, this isn't a funny little thing, this is actually really important and God does not leave our hearts a big glob of wickedness. He's. He's given us a new heart and we 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:Yeah, so true. Well, that is just a little glimpse of one of our studies here. In our devotional we, like Esty said we will do a few more that we've picked out in the following episodes, so we hope that you will stick around for those. You can find this book on Amazon and if you just look up issues of the heart, a 31 day devotional by simply edify, you should find it, and we are thankful that you are listening.
