A Piece Of My Own Heart

I have been thinking a lot lately about repentance, about changing the desires of my heart. It is not an easy process. Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote:

If it were only so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

That is the question isn’t it. Jesus addressed the root of this question in Matthew 5:28-30:

But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

In this passage, Jesus tells us that we have to be willing to have serious surgery to deal with serious problems. This sheds new light for me on Paul’s argument in Romans 2:28-29

For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.

So, in answering Alexander’s question, all who call themselves Christian must be willing to have a piece of their heart cut out, no matter how long or painful the process might be, because that is what circumsizing the heart is all about, cutting out the evil that has taken up root there. We who believe have the hope that what Paul said to the Thessalonians will happen in our own lives: (2 Thes 3.5)

Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ.

Aa well as the hope of Hebrews 10:21-22

…and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

May God bless your day and continue to work in your heart for His honor and glory.