Does the Christian life seem to you, as it does to me, a constant battle for my heart and affections? How powerfully we are reminded that there is a war in this life between the old, sinful nature, and the new, regenerate nature through Christ. At every turn we are bombarded by the flesh to construct idols, and then to worship them. John Calvin once remarked, “the heart is a factory for idols”. Yet we know from Scripture God will not (and should not) tolerate idolatry in the lives of His people.
So what are we as believers to do in this mortal battle? How do we contend against our flesh and the battle to remove idols from our heart? As with so many things, it is by a mind informed by the Scripture, a will affected by such knowledge, and a reliance on the Holy Spirit to enable us to make those right decisions, and to put away our idolatry. Anything can become an idol! If any decision does not lead us to the glory of God, it is idolatrous. We must always be on guard to make the right decisions, and in so doing please God, and not ourselves.
Below is a simple chart that I picked up and modified from a NANC Biblical Counseling Conference in 2006. I hope that it helps in giving you a visual model to think through when next you are faced with a decision.
Here is a brief explanation, starting at the bottom of the chart:
1) The battle ground is our heart.
Matthew 15:19 “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.”
2) As we proceed through life we are faced with decisions, temptations, etc. that reveal our heart at the point of decision. We must protect our hearts and cultivate right thinking that will promote God’s ways.
Proverbs 4:23 “Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life.”
3) When coming to the point of decision/temptation we will go to one of two sides: Truth oriented or desire oriented.
These two are always in conflict. Truth acts on “what I know to be right”. Desire acts on, “what I feel”.
At this point we will make a decision.
4) One option is to go with desire. This choice is easy at first because it “feels right”. However, as you know, our feelings are often rooted in our sinful nature and cannot ever be trusted because our flesh is at war with God.
Because choosing desire over Truth is placing something else above God it is idolatrous and is in violation of God’s rule in our lives. This road will never ultimately be an easy road.
Proverbs 13:15 “Good understanding produces favor, But the way of the treacherous is hard.”
5) The God-honoring option is to choose based on Truth, on what pleases God. This choice more often than not is hard at first because it goes against the grain of our flesh, our culture, and against our chief adversary, Satan. However, regardless of our feelings which cannot be trusted, we must learn to follow based on Biblical Truth/principle. Unlike our desires which are so often wrong because they are rooted in the flesh, God’s Word is never wrong because it is rooted in His unfailing holiness.
In the end, these decisions based on Truth make life easier because we have pleased God and put down our flesh.
Matthew 11:30 “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
6) In either case, our decisions to pursue our choices in one way or another breed habits
that either aid us or harm us as we strive to follow Christ. Wouldn’t life be so much easier if we were in the habit of exercising ourselves toward godliness, instead of away from it? Wouldn’t life be better if we moved toward more automatic and intimate fellowship with Christ?
7) We do all of this because it is what we were created to do. First, we were created for fellowship with God in the Garden of Eden. But that ended in man’s failure to choose God/Truth over desire. (Funny that, even in a state of perfection man’s free will always chooses to fight God. Hmmm! Do we think we can do better today? Thank God for His action alone on our behalf!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
However, after the Fall we have been given a new opportunity to fellowship with God through His Son Jesus Christ. It is in that context that we have been created in Jesus Christ to make right decisions that we may have fellowship with our Father.
Ephesians 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we should walk in them.”
I John 1:3 “that we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have
fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.”
Lastly we were created to do this for God’s glory and His pleasure. We must remember that in making the right choices, by placing Him on the highest place of our mind and heart we bring Him greatest glory and find for ourselves the greatest joy!
II Corinthians 5:9 “Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.”
So what are we as believers to do in this mortal battle? How do we contend against our flesh and the battle to remove idols from our heart? As with so many things, it is by a mind informed by the Scripture, a will affected by such knowledge, and a reliance on the Holy Spirit to enable us to make those right decisions, and to put away our idolatry. Anything can become an idol! If any decision does not lead us to the glory of God, it is idolatrous. We must always be on guard to make the right decisions, and in so doing please God, and not ourselves.
Below is a simple chart that I picked up and modified from a NANC Biblical Counseling Conference in 2006. I hope that it helps in giving you a visual model to think through when next you are faced with a decision.
Here is a brief explanation, starting at the bottom of the chart:
1) The battle ground is our heart.
Matthew 15:19 “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.”
2) As we proceed through life we are faced with decisions, temptations, etc. that reveal our heart at the point of decision. We must protect our hearts and cultivate right thinking that will promote God’s ways.
Proverbs 4:23 “Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life.”
3) When coming to the point of decision/temptation we will go to one of two sides: Truth oriented or desire oriented.
These two are always in conflict. Truth acts on “what I know to be right”. Desire acts on, “what I feel”.
At this point we will make a decision.
4) One option is to go with desire. This choice is easy at first because it “feels right”. However, as you know, our feelings are often rooted in our sinful nature and cannot ever be trusted because our flesh is at war with God.
Because choosing desire over Truth is placing something else above God it is idolatrous and is in violation of God’s rule in our lives. This road will never ultimately be an easy road.
Proverbs 13:15 “Good understanding produces favor, But the way of the treacherous is hard.”
5) The God-honoring option is to choose based on Truth, on what pleases God. This choice more often than not is hard at first because it goes against the grain of our flesh, our culture, and against our chief adversary, Satan. However, regardless of our feelings which cannot be trusted, we must learn to follow based on Biblical Truth/principle. Unlike our desires which are so often wrong because they are rooted in the flesh, God’s Word is never wrong because it is rooted in His unfailing holiness.
In the end, these decisions based on Truth make life easier because we have pleased God and put down our flesh.
Matthew 11:30 “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
6) In either case, our decisions to pursue our choices in one way or another breed habits
that either aid us or harm us as we strive to follow Christ. Wouldn’t life be so much easier if we were in the habit of exercising ourselves toward godliness, instead of away from it? Wouldn’t life be better if we moved toward more automatic and intimate fellowship with Christ?
7) We do all of this because it is what we were created to do. First, we were created for fellowship with God in the Garden of Eden. But that ended in man’s failure to choose God/Truth over desire. (Funny that, even in a state of perfection man’s free will always chooses to fight God. Hmmm! Do we think we can do better today? Thank God for His action alone on our behalf!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
However, after the Fall we have been given a new opportunity to fellowship with God through His Son Jesus Christ. It is in that context that we have been created in Jesus Christ to make right decisions that we may have fellowship with our Father.
Ephesians 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we should walk in them.”
I John 1:3 “that we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have
fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.”
Lastly we were created to do this for God’s glory and His pleasure. We must remember that in making the right choices, by placing Him on the highest place of our mind and heart we bring Him greatest glory and find for ourselves the greatest joy!
II Corinthians 5:9 “Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.”
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