What in your Heart?

I know christians that have been walking with the Lord and trying to live their life in Christ. But for some reason have strayed away, backslidden, or God is just not a priority anymore. They say this life as a christian is hard and there are too many rules, or they're too ashamed. They keep making the same mistakes over and over again, or they say, "I don't have the time for God." Now there may have been times that we have found ourselves in this condition and not know why. In 1998 I went thought a divorce that caused me to be so ashamed of myself that i separated myself from God, my son who needed me, my family who didn't know where I was, and friends that thought I was someone dead. Now I take full responsibility for my mistakes and action. That's  when I discovered that the problem wasn't the other people, the devil or unforeseen circumstances. The problem was my heart. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly perverse and corrupt and severely, mortally sick! Who can know it (perceive, understand, be acquainted with his own heart and mind)?" Jeremiah 17:9 Amplified. I said I love God, but my actions said differently. I said I'd do good, but focused my attention on doing wrong. I said I'd help other, but put more attention on myself and my needs. I went to church on Sundays, but the church wasn't in me daily.    Open Heart Surgery
I began to ask God to help me.  To show me how to get out of feeling and doing what I was doing.  Then God showed me this scripture in Colossians 3:5, in the Amplified Bible, "So kill (deaden, deprive of power) the evil desire lurking in your members [those animal impulses and all that is earthly in you that is employed in sin]: sexual vice, impurity, sensual appetites, unholy desires, and all greed and covetousness, for that is idolatry (the deifying of self and other created things instead of God)."  God revealed to me, in the broken state I was in, that I had so many things taking up space in my heart that I allowed no room for God.  I needed to get the junk out.  I needed to evict the enemy in me.  "Strip yourselves of your former nature [put off and discard your old unrenewed self] which characterized your previous manner of life and becomes corrupt through lusts and desires that spring from delusion;" Ephesians 4:22 Amplified.
Giving Jesus The Keys To My Heart
Jesus said in Luke 6:45 KJV, "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good;"  I began to spend time with God, reading His Word, asking Him for understanding of what I read.  Asking for revelation in me, that it would change me.  Praying to the Father in Jesus' name.  I meditated on the Word day and night, like Psalm chapter 1 says.  I listened to good praise and worship music that confirmed the love of God in me.  I started developing a passion for God that I never had before.  I developed a loving relationship with my heavenly Father, Hallelujah!
Setting My Mind On Things Above
I set a course every morning, before I did anything else, to spend time with God.  I set my mind on Him.  Committed my time to Him.  Gave my finances to Him.  I placed more value on the internal than the external.  I started praising about Him, speaking out about Him and who He is.  The Lord of my life!
So remember, if things in your life continue to weigh you down.  Or if what you're doing is more about you than others, check your heart.  For out of the abundance of the heart, you heart, your life will speak.
Read, meditate and pray this weeks scripture:
Colossians 3:1-5
Colossians 3:10-17
Ephesians 4:20-25
Psalm 119:11
Proverbs 23:7
Matthew 5:45

God loves you, and so do I!