HEART ESSENTIALS
[5-minute read]
There is moral panic in today’s society about the power and peril of artificial intelligence (AI). While we love the benefits of AI in healthcare, transport and manufacturing, we are also wary of the unpredictability of its output in many other applications. There are too many unknown variables that go into the deep learning for machines to think like humans. However, corollary to this unease with AI is the reality that there are no universal values controlling the humans who develop AI. Talk about a ‘wicked problem’.
Indeed, we are told in Jeremiah 17:9 (NLT) that “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” This takes us to the Parable of the Sower where Jesus warned his listeners about the perils that lie in the human heart (Matthew 13:3-9).
This week, our guest speaker, Pastor Lai Keet Keong, led us to examine the true state of our hearts. Like the blackbox in AI, all of us have a ‘blackbox’ where thoughts, sins and motives that hide beneath our consciousness are driving our behaviour. Only God can reveal what’s hidden in our ‘blackbox’ to expose the devil in the details
Jesus touched on four types of soil in the Parable of the Sower. Let’s be clear that this is not about the condition of the human heart before experiencing salvation. Rather it touches on the unchecked condition of a believer’s heart. On a more positive note, our hearts can be changed and can become more fertile for the Word of God to grow. By recognizing the current condition of our heart, we can identify any growth impediments and subtle hostility towards those whom God sends into our lives to teach us.
A HARDENED HEART
Matthew 13:4 describes the hardened heart as a well-used path that is beaten and trampled on in service to others. To all appearances, it is a believer whose life looks highly useful and sacrificial yet the hardened path is not a heart that is conducive for and receptive to the counsel and instruction of God’s Word. As soon as something good appears to nurture the believer’s faith, the enemy sends a counter-idea to dismiss it. Many Christians are oblivious to the presence of a spiritual predator hovering over their hardened hearts, ready to swoop down and devour every Word of God that is planted there. Over time, they become cynical, negative and plagued with negative thoughts due their spiritual deficiency.
A SHALLOW HEART
Matthew 13:5-6 is analogous of a believer’s heart that lacks depth. Yet it is one who is the first to respond, the first to sign up for this and that, and the first to post church news or a piece of teaching on social media. Beyond that, there is little evidence of growth especially when the realities of life appear and challenge the believer’s faith in the goodness of God and the validity of His Word. Where the ‘soil is shallow’, nothing takes root and the believer will always be struggling to endure as a disciple of the Word of God. The rocks described in verse 5 are the deeply-embedded opinions, judgments, offenses and rights that we hold dearer than our obedience to God. Yet, we can trust the Holy Spirit to chisel at these rocks and replace them with the irrefutable Word of Truth - one verse at a time.
Indeed, the global pandemic had exposed the conditions of many believers’ hearts. The same challenges and crises that appeared had different effects on different ones: some had given up and walked away from the faith, while others emerged stronger in theirs. In the same way, the tidal waves that intimidate and drown some people offer the very conditions for keen surfers to develop their next-level skills and endurance.
A CLUTTERED HEART
Thorns that choke plants and restrict their growth are mentioned in Matthew 13:7 to describe the conflicting ideologies and priorities in our lives that stifle the realization of God’s Word in our daily experiences. We create thorns when we mistake our familiarity with the church and the Bible as a sign of spiritual maturity; when we assume that we must have grown spiritually after surviving difficulties in life; or when we let a healthy appetite for living become an all-consuming raison d'être to pursue worldly desires and to have it all. Tragically, thorns thrive in otherwise good and fertile hearts. Hence, we are warned in Matthew 16:26a, “What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?”
A READIED HEART
It has been said that easy faith is cheap faith. A readied heart is one that disciplines itself to stay pliable and open to the Holy Spirit’s counsel, correction and course reversal, even if the process seems painful. It is a heart that will not pursue any commitment at the expense of being estranged from God, or let any relationship become more sacred than our obedience to Him. A readied heart rigorously trains itself to deepen its roots in God’s Word, and to surrender all cares and worries to Him before the storms of life appear to shake its foundation. These are the people whom casual Christians will label as ‘too serious’ and their commitment to God as ‘not realistic’ about options out there.
Yet, a readied heart is “a noble and good heart, who hear the Word, retain it and by persevering produce a crop.” (Luke 8:15).
Is the Holy Spirit revealing a hardened, shallow or cluttered heart in you? You can be sure that the next trial you face will test the condition of your heart and reveal its true state. When that happens, will you be ready for it?
This is a summary and reflection based on a virtual BIR Session held on 6 May 2023.
