Your heart; Art and Acts
In my previous article, I talked about the possibility of living in this world and not living according to the standards and dictates of the world. The possibility does not happen by magic but by consistently taking action towards this possibility.
You have a part to play if you want to achieve any goal in life. Like I will always say, you are responsible for yourself the same way you are also responsible for the people around you. So, since you are responsible for yourself, you are also responsible for how you live your life and the decisions you make as well.
The ungodly actions we express or carry out are fruits of what we expose ourselves to overtime. Yes, they are seeds that grew up in us and start producing fruits. Looking at the parable of the sower in Luke 8:4–8, the seeds that fell unto the good soil, grew up and produced fruit, “a hundred time what was sown”; the same way the ungodly seeds that fall into our heart either withers away for lack of moisture for the kind of seed or grows and brings forth fruit because it found our heart to be a fertile ground for it kind of seed.
One of the ways that our heart can be a fertile ground for ungodly seed is by opening the doors of our heart to everything around us. You know how your body feels like when you’ve taken enough junk and no healthy food and then just a minor accident you find yourself bleeding so much because the food that should boost the antibodies in your body were missing. The timeliness and availability of junkies should never make you undermine the importance of real food to your body system.
Junk foods in this context can be likened to music, movies, books, and so on. Let’s just say anything that is considered as content in today’s world like conversations that don’t aid your spiritual growth and cause a struggle for your faith. If they don’t aid your growth then they will diminish your growth and that is dangerous. It is this junk food that weakens our immune system and makes us not see the wrong in the ungodly actions.
Because every other person is doing it doesn’t mean you should do it.
Let me give this instance, there was this movie series I saw with a friend some years ago. My friend had earlier seen the movie and thought it was a good movie for me to see since I was visiting. It actually had two seasons and I saw both before I went back to my place. The built-up emotions from the two seasons made me anticipate the other season that would be released later. Meanwhile months after that visit, the holy spirit told me not to see the movie as it contained a handful of erotic scenes.
As was my usual habit then, I promised to fast forward the sexual scenes when the movie is released. Finally, the third season was released, and truly the movie did not fall short of what I had been warned about earlier on. I didn’t even bother to finish the first episode before I found my way out.
This is one of many stories and incidents.
The human brain and mind have a way of storing information without your permission. The sexual scene you just saw might seem so irrelevant and useless but the next time you find yourself in a vulnerable situation, it will replay itself and you will have no choice other than to subject yourself to doing that thing you don’t want to do. The same goes for music, books, conversations.
Find your triggers and avoid them like a plague if you want to grow.
If it doesn’t build your faith, flee from it!
If it doesn’t grow your faith, run from it!
If it starts questioning God’s stand on some things, Japa!
If you ever have to struggle between it and God, abandon it.
The bottom line of my gist today is that guide your heart above all else, for it is the source of life.
Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life.Don’t let your mouth speak dishonestly, and don’t let your lips talk deviously. Let your eyes look forward; fix your gaze,Lit straight ahead. Carefully consider the path for your feet, and all your ways will be established. Don’t turn to the right or to the left; keep your feet away from evil. Proverbs 4:23–26(CSB)
With love from my heart to yours. 😍
