Heart moment: From my personal journal September 21, 2013
(My personal journal entries will be slightly edited due to the respect and privacy of others, and grammar edits I may have missed because I freely write and hey it’s my personal journal).
“I believe I’m allowing God slowly into my heart. I closed my heart to him for so long, that I don’t know how to give back what should have been his in the first place. You see I came to church because I knew that was the Christian thing to do, and I was actively involved in ministry at my church, but my heart was not in it. I knew how to put up an image that was accepted in Christian society because I was raised in a Godly home with Godly principles.”
What is Exposure?
An exposure according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary says; “the fact or condition of being affected by something or experiencing something: the condition of being exposed to something”.
If your heart is infected you have to first be exposed to something that is not of God. Infection can happen when you have allowed places in your heart to never heal, or you’ve committed sin.
One moment your heart is healthy and it feels like your life is striving, and the next you wake up diseased. Often times we wonder how our so-called exquisite lives become debris. In our shattered quotidian lives we become incognizant of how sin has poisoned our heart.
Many of us carry hidden sins in our heart such as sexual promiscuity, unforgiveness, anger, pride, lying, etc. Sin is the element in which our heart becomes infected.
The moment we have committed a sin, we have exposed ourselves to an infection. When we sin it opens places in our heart that we believe will not be affected by our disobedience to God. No matter how massive or insufficient a sin may seem, it plays a detrimental role in our walk with God.
Check Your Pulse Moment: “Infection is a result of the carelessness we have over our heart”
The Bible says in Isaiah 59:2:
“But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.”
Sin separates us from God!
I recall countless times I made decisions that were contrary to God’s word, which meant I sinned against God. When I chose to continuously make decisions that did not line up with His Word, sin intertwined into the depths of my heart.
I was infected with bitterness, lust, unforgiveness, and ultimately closed my heart from God. My heart was infected because I wasn’t truly sorry for the sins I had committed; I was merely sorry for getting caught.
In order for an individual’s heart to beat the rhythm of God’s heartbeat, one must first ask the Lord if there are hidden sins in your heart. Once God reveals the infectious parts of your heart, the next step is to ask the Lord for forgiveness.
1 John 1:9 says:
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness”.
God is waiting for us to allow him to clean our infectious heart. But, first, we must open our hearts to him.