Much of what we are taught from the time we are very young has to do with actions. We learn that if we do certain things, we will be rewarded or punished. By the time we hit school age, this belief is entrenched, and the school system cements it with marks based on performance.
While there is much to be said for excellence, the danger is that we can often miss the deeper things. Love. Compassion. Forgiveness. Mercy. Goodness. Not "acting in a loving way" and so forth but actually receiving love, having love inside of us, and expressing that love in tangible ways. The impetus of all action is the heart. The same goes with the other expressions of love I just mentioned.
Actions are deceptive. Often they can appear good, but the heart within is filled with selfishness and self-promotion. Consider the Pharisee, or the person who does good deeds only for the accolades of the crowd, or even just to feel good about him/herself.
More often in this world, the action is destructive, but the motivation for the action is one of wanting to do what is right. Hitler believed that he was acting for the greater good. In fact, he was considered by many to be "the defender of the faith."
When the heart is right - and submitted to the Maker - the actions will flow from it as naturally as a person's body casts a shadow in the light. The message we receive, unfortunately, is somehow the opposite. The cart, as it were, has been placed before the horse.
We hear misleading messages with the ring of truth, and we accept them as truth. "Fake it til you make it." "God helps those who help themselves." The fallacy in this kind of thinking is that there is absolutely nothing that we can do in ourselves to effect any kind of change where it counts - on the inside. And if there is nothing at all on the inside, and our motivation is external - in obligation, duty, rules - the works we do manage to do will mean nothing in Eternity. The apostle Paul said we could even be burned at the stake for our faith, and it would not mean a thing ... if we don't have God's love as our motivation.
It could indeed be argued that we are the result of our choices. While our choices may have consequences that affect our inner life, the choices themselves must come from somewhere: a code, a belief system, an emotion. The heart. Any external motivation - any kind of "should" - will fail in the final analysis, when we stand before the Great One. This is why the wisest man ever to live advised, "Above all, guard your heart, for it is the well-spring of life."
I believe that we in the church have given the heart a bad rep and have done ourselves a disservice as a result. We're told not to trust the heart, from the time we are very small ... by the very people who have learned to deny their own. Is that not akin to laying heavy burdens (such as a certain standard of behavior) on people's backs and not lifting one finger to help them (like tell them how to achieve that by depending on God instead of judging them for not being able to do it on their own)?
I pray that we in this generation can reverse the wrong we have done to ourselves and to our children, that we can again learn to listen to the Spirit that He has placed within us, in order to act from the inside out, to DO from our BEING.
Dear God, teach us how to really listen to You ... and truly live.
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