The heart of the matter – from the overflow of the heart is what you live out

What is inside your heart?

A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. Luke 6:45

The contents of your heart are expressed in what you say and do.  The heart that we are referring to here is not the physical heart, but your spirit or soul or who you are.

As humans, we carry around some sinful things in our hearts simply because we are human.  Jealousy, envy, selfishness, etc are hidden in the heart.

For out of the heart come evil thoughts–murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. Matthew 15:19

We can control what we put into our hearts.  Yes.  If we put in garbage, we get garbage back out.  If we feed ourselves a diet of sensual images of pornography, how can we expect to get anything good out when we need it.  Just like how eating healthy food yields good general health and a good appearance, a diet of junk food will make us sick physically and we won’t look healthy.

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Galatians 6:8

Sin is inherently in our hearts because we are human, but we can overcome the sin in our hearts with good.  We can guard our hearts by keeping our eyes and ears and persons away from the influences of the world, away from sin.  We guard our hearts not only by avoiding off color jokes, not exposing your eyes to porn or other sensual material, listening to music or radio that does not honor God, but we can fill ourselves up with good things!  Here are a few things we can do to overcome evil with good!

• Pray – prayer tunes our hearts towards the things of God and His will.  Communicating with your father fills you with His Spirit
• Read the Bible – reading God’s word will work in your heart to break down any lies you believe that have been fed to you by the world.
• listen to positive music – uplifting positive music will keep your mind out of the gutter and from focusing on the sins all around us.
• Watch positive TV or news – We have unlimited sources of media, even good media.  pick movies that affirm your values.  watch news that is positive
• Go to church – recharge your spiritual batteries and feed on truth from church.  Getting together with like minded people who affirm your values is good for you.
• Join a club or Bible study – civic organizations and Bible studies are good places to be around people who encourage you and teach you how to live outside yourself.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things. Phillipians 4:8

So if you are sick of the things you are saying or doing or thinking.. stop and consider what is in your heart.  Start guarding your heart and feeding it a diet of positive life giving things!