Matters Of The Heart - The Focused Heart and Mind

Hello Everyone,

    This is Pastor Rick.  What a joy it is to come to you through the power of technology.  This email is the first in what will be a series of “How To” newsletters dealing with the practical application of the Word of God to your lives.  Proverbs 4:23 says Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.  This series will show you how to concentrate your focus on the Issues of your lives so that the Word can change your lives and make them become all that God has promised.   For too long, we have tried to make the changes we know are needed by focusing our minds on the need to make those changes.  If we need to be more patient, just thinking about that need will never change a thing.  Only when we recognize that lack of patience is a matter of the heart, and deal with it on that level will patience then become a permanent issue of our lives.

    In this first letter we’ll be dealing with the general subject of Heart Issues, and in the weeks ahead with the specifics of those issues.

     • How to engage in the process of heart examination
     • The importance of Focus and what we should ignore
     • How to cultivate positive heart attitudes
     • The important ingredients for altering negative heart attitudes
     • Keys to initiating and accepting change in our lives

    We’ll be hitting the issues of life head on, but we don’t want it to be a one-way street.  We encourage you to write back and let us know how we can help you apply the teachings to the specific matters in your lives.  You’ll get an answer and our best effort to address your issues and agree with you in prayer.  We want this series to truly transform lives and turn defeats into victories.  We look forward to hearing from you and seeing you in church.

    So, how do we narrow our focus from all the things about our lives we want to change to the one thing that will change them forever?  The answer is simple, but requires consistent discipline, because we have an enemy that does everything in his power to steal that simple answer from us.  And the answer is: we let the Word of God change the way our hearts deal with the issues of life.

    Ezekiel 11:19 Amplified shows us how this process is supposed to work.  And I will give them one heart [a new heart] and I will put a new spirit within them; and I will take the stony [unnaturally hardened] heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh [sensitive and responsive to the touch of their God] When we are born again, God takes the hardened, unregenerate heart that can never make a right decision about anything out of us and replaces it with a brand new heart.  But this new heart must be trained to remain sensitive - and taught to respond to the touch of God.

    It’s at this point that so many of us encounter problems, because our old natures rise up and tell us we’ve got to change the things we are doing and how we are doing them.  The enemy grabs our focus and distorts the whole picture by making us think we’ve got to clean up our acts in order to have the right heart condition.  That’s not what God says.  God says, “I’ve made you righteous.  What I want you to do is let Me show you how to walk in constant fellowship with Me.  This means changing your heart attitude about everything.  And the way that change will come about is through My Word in your heart coming out of your mouths.”