Articles
My Heart Belongs To...
Many people spend their whole lives devoted to the wrong things. Money, popularity, power, selfish desires – you name it, someone has given his heart to it. Most see nothing at all wrong with such pursuits, as “that’s the way of the world”. But there’s great danger in giving one’s heart to such things, as Paul writes in Philippians 3:18-19, “(For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)”
It’s not a matter of how much one may enjoy “earthly things”, nor how their pursuit often makes one more acceptable to others, nor that they are important to most people as a measure of one’s success in life. When one gives his heart to them, it makes him an enemy of the cross of Christ! This means that he is the enemy of Almighty God, as James 4:4 tells us, “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”
It’s for this reason we are told in 1 John 2:15-17, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.” We cannot go to Heaven as “friends of the world”, because God is not in us. Perhaps this sounds a bit simplistic, but the fact of the matter is that many still have not learned this valuable lesson.
Even some members of the church have misplaced their hearts in this respect. As they become more involved with “the world”, they begin to question even plain teaching of the Scriptures. They don’t attend services as they should, for example, and try and justify themselves with “an ox in the ditch” which is nothing more than the world clamoring for their attention. Before long, they even question the plain language of Hebrews 10:25, which says, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” From there, it’s just a short step into full-blown apostasy.
Undoubtedly, the best way to avoid such a trap is to remember what our Lord says in Matthew 6:19-21 --- “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
To what does your heart belong --- or rather, to whom? Is Heaven just a step away from you – or condemnation???!!! My heart belongs to …
