The simple things are sometimes the most difficult. A right heart is a simple thing. Children can have it. In fact, often they have better hearts than we adults. I wrestle with having a right heart. This section on heart attitudes has been the most difficult to write. I have found it hard to write about a godly heart when my own heart struggles so. How do you write about authority when you sin? How do you tell people to enjoy God when you are so busy with other things? I have been unable to write these chapters on heart attitudes straight through. Part of the reason has been my schedule, but much of the reason has been that my own heart was often not conducive to the task, and I had to wait. A wrong heart cannot effectively write about a right heart.
A right heart is so difficult to cultivate and yet so simple to cultivate. We are sometimes too sophisticated for our own good. This world keeps calling us to self, to comfort, to pleasures, to knowledge, to responsibilities. Some of these may be good things, but they will never give us a right heart. Our sinful nature wants us to indulge, and our cultures often encourage the indulgences. We, thus, have our own fallen nature working against us plus the society we swim in working against us. It is as if we have no chance. We are stuck in a fast-moving river that pushes us toward Niagara Falls, and cultivating a right heart can seem like swimming against that current. Even when I have the best of motives, I find my heart being pulled downstream away from God. If this is your experience, be encouraged. It was Paul’s experience (Rm 7), and the godliest people I know talk of the difficulty of keeping their hearts focused. This is not an excuse to give up the fight: to stop swimming against the current. It is an encouragement to continue the fight: to come to God and enjoy His presence, and to realize that the fight is worth the effort.
You will find at times that cultivating a right heart is a war. And yet it is simple. It is when I have stepped out of the river that I have been most able to make progress with my heart. When I have made time for God, my heart has thrived the most. When I have said “No” to the TV or the Internet and “Yes” to the Bible or to a conversation with God, my heart has warmed. When I have spoken the truth when I knew that doing so would bring mockery, I have been filled. When I have confessed my sin, I have seen the grace of God. When I have directed my career based on the calling of God and not based on pure financial considerations, I have had joy. When I have taken time to listen to the Holy Spirit, to ask His advice, to humble myself before Him, I have had peace. When I have focused not on entertainment or pleasure but on the glory of God, I have had great pleasure.
This is how it is. God’s people are on a journey, and it’s a long, hard journey. But there is joy in the journey and more joy at the end. And though it is hard, it is really quite simple. Put one foot in front of the other and look to your Guide. When you do that, the heart blossoms.
