Shut The Door
by Steve Countryman Proverbs 4:23-27 “23Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. 24 Keep your mouth free of perversity; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. 25 Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. 26 Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways, (be determined). 27 Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.” Proverbs 22:5 “Thorns and snares are in the way of the perverse; He who guards his soul will be far from them.” Compromise is a slow death to the righteous in the Lord. It wears away the hard shell of faith and trust in your God as it “muddies the waters” of the Word of God in your life. As a child of God you are made holy because the Holy One, Jesus, lives in you! Holy means: separated, set apart. Dedicated to a religious/divine purpose. It is the responsibility of a child of God to maintain that holiness position by guarding your heart. Compromise is what happens when you fail to guard your heart! It happens in subtle and different ways that are easily overlooked and ignored. I refer to guarding your heart as shutting the door on those questionable things that present themselves. I’ll give you an example of one that recently happened to me. I was watching a comedy movie the other day. There were crude dialog references to sex and “acceptable behavior” in the bedroom. I had a “check” in my spirit that made me uncomfortable and knew that this wasn’t something that I should be watching. I ignored the warning and continued watching the rest of the movie. Later that day and right through the next day I remembered parts of the crude language and how I finished watching it knowing that I should’ve turned it off. I failed to guard my heart! Guarding your heart means that you must shut the door on compromise and sinful things. When you shut the door you deny access to areas of your life, mind and spirit. You have to shut the door on lies and deception and those things that lead you there. Shut the door on temptation by standing your ground, resist the Devil by your testimony and the Word of God. Shut the door on bad friends who do not have your best interest at heart. Shut the door on sinful habits and routines for they want to distract and destroy you. Shut the door on political correctness that wants to silence your believes in your God. Shut the door on filthy movies, TV, music, books and anything that is contrary to the Word of God. Shut the door on pity parties that the Devil wants you to wallow in guilt over your sins. You have the choice of what you watch, listen to and partake in. It is more important to shut the door on those corruptible things regardless who you may offend then to risk hurting yourself and offending God. Just ask the Holy Spirit to help direct and guide you in ALL righteousness and He will get you through! Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |
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