9 Common Lies Christians Believe by Shane Pruitt

Author:Shane Pruitt [Pruitt, Shane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Non-fiction, Theology
ISBN: 9780735291577
Amazon: 0735291578
Goodreads: 40359953
Publisher: The Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2019-02-19T07:00:00+00:00

Follow: Implies that something/someone is going to lead me.

Your heart: According to this statement, what’s going to lead me is my heart. However (now that I properly understand the real meaning of the word heart), what I am saying is, “My feelings, desires, and emotions are going to be my guide.”

Do you see where this leads? This statement’s no longer just a well-meaning cliché or a cute, glittery T-shirt. It is actually harmful advice and would be a really dumb idea to live out practically. My guide, leader, and boss are going to be my feelings, desires, and emotions? No, thank you! Besides the Lord, no one knows me better than I do. I know me! My feelings, desires, and emotions change all the time. They can change with a phone call, a word of criticism, or a traffic jam. Honestly, I’m a tad bit of an emotional roller coaster with the ups, downs, and occasional loops and twists. I’m not sure that roller-coaster-polar is a clinical diagnosis, but I tend to be up when everything is going my way, when people are patting me on the back, and when my family is doing okay. However, I can be down when it seems as though the harder I try the more I mess up, when a lot of criticism is coming my way, or when I know my family is suffering. This is why I identify with the psalms and their writers so much. In one psalm, the author wrote, “To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens!” (123:1). In another, “I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God” (69:3). I don’t know about you, but I connect with that—up and down, hot and cold, spiritually high and spiritually low.

This is why I cannot follow my feelings, desires, and emotions. If I were to follow them, I’d be all over the map with my decisions. Unfortunately, if we are honest with ourselves, many Christians are just that—all over the map; completely lost in direction, stability, and functionality in their daily lives.

As mentioned earlier, the Bible has a lot to say about the heart, and most of what it says carries a negative connotation. For example, the prophet Jeremiah wrote this: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). The greatest Bible teacher of all, Jesus, also pointed out the fallen condition of our hearts: “From within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person” (Mark 7:21–23). Basically, the most vile and disgusting acts a human being can be involved with begin in the heart.

If we believe the teachings of Jeremiah and Jesus concerning the heart, then we should seriously consider this question: If a person

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.