“Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.” (Ps 26:2 AV)
If you are a child of God, your struggle to overcome sin is very
real. Paul’s description of it in Romans
chapter seven is overwhelmingly appropriate.
But one thing we fail to realize is the roll the heart plays in all of
it. If there is no heart to want to do
right, then chastening or disciplining the will is short-lived. There has to be a hear to do the right thing
in order for the will to be consistent in doing the right thing.
Study after study has shown that organized diets for weight loss
do not work. At least in the long
run. One such study revealed those who
have tried organized weight loss programs for weight loss alone soon gained
back at least what they lost if not more once they were off the diet. The thing about those diets is they focus on
a gimmick and not on the heart. I
recently read of a man who lost 300 pounds because the thought of not being
alive long enough to see his children grow up and get married frightened him. He decided it was time for a life-style
change. He didn’t follow any strict
calorie or point counting diet. He
simple cut out almost all carbs and sugar, changing to a high protein and
vegetable diet. No counting calories. Not counting points. No measuring.
None of that. How did he do it? The circumstances of life changed his heart
about how he viewed food. Gaining weight
after a difficult divorce, he used food as a source of comfort and
self-loathing. But that came to a
screeching halt when he realized his sin was killing him.
When we go to the LORD and ask forgiveness of sin, desiring to
overcome the sins of which we feel guilty, if the heart is not changed
concerning those things, then the will is destined for failure. When David asks the heart be proved, he is
asking the LORD to test and strengthen the heart. Give a heart willing to change one’s
actions. Not a will that is changed with
a fleeting heart that motivated it.
Change the heart and the will shall follow.
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