SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/23/2017 10:58 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “Strong in Heart”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Colossians
2:2a
Message of the verse: “that their hearts may be encouraged,”
We have been talking about the strengthening of the
hearts of those in the Colossian church as Paul desires that to happen to
them. We have also talked about the word
encouraged which can actually be the word used in our verse and that word is
similar to the word used of the Holy Spirit’s ministry and actually His name.
I now want to move onto looking at the word heart by
quoting John MacArthur from his commentary:
“When used figuratively in the Bible, the word heart is usually more general and refers broadly to the inner
person, the center of life. It often
equates specifically to the mind. In
Revelation 2:23 the Lord describes Himself as ‘He who searches the minds and
hearts; and…will give to each one of you according to your deeds.’ The heart here is a synonym for the
mind. Using the term heart as the general term for the
thinking faculty, Jeremiah 17:9 says, ‘The heart is more deceitful than all
else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?’ Revelation 18:7 says of Babylon, ‘For she
says in her heart, ‘I sit as a queen and I am not a widow, and will never see
mourning.’’ ‘The fool,’ Psalm 53:1 says ‘has
said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’’
As those verses indicate, the heart refers to the mind, where thinking
takes place (cf. Isa. 47:8; Zeph. 2:15; Matt. 24:48).” Now we have a better understanding of what
the meaning of the word “heart” is when seen in the Word of God.
So if the heart is not the seat of emotions we need to learn that the
emotions respond to what is going on in the heart, to what the mind
perceives. So the way to control the
emotions is through the mind which we have learned is seen by the use of the
word “heart.” Let’s look at Romans
12:1-2 “1Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your
bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual
service of worship. 2 And
do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your
mind, so that you
may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and
perfect.” Actually all we need to
look at is verse two but these verses go so well together it is hard to quote
one without the other. Ok we see how we
can control our emotions in verse two when we read that we need to “be
transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
The word transformed is the word we get metamorphous from like a worm
being turned into a butterfly. So what
is the key to controlling our emotions?
By having our minds renewed through the Word of God, which we could say
having our hearts transformed by the Word of God. We need the Holy Spirit to do this as we
read, study, memorize, and meditate upon the Word of God and as we do this in
different areas of our life that we find in the Word of God then we will
actually begin to live a life that is holy to the Lord.
We will conclude this SD with another quote from John MacArthur: “What fills the heart will inevitably issue in behavior. ‘From the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. The good man out of his good treasure brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings forth what is evil’ (Matt. 12:34-5).”
2/23/2017 11:21 PM
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