Heart Surgery

Tylenol is a great thing.  I spent years beating up my body so every now and then my old injuries flare up on me. Whether it's my shoulder, my back, my knee or just a plain old headache, Tylenol seems to give me the temporary relief I need.  Did you catch that little word "temporary?"  That's because that is all Tylenol can do.  It's great at numbing the pain for a while but it never addresses the underlying problem.  It treats the symptoms but never reaches to the root issue.  I'm afraid that's how we often treat our sin.  We are great at dealing with the outward symptoms but never address the root cause of the problem.  This leaves us in a perpetual cycle of finding small “victories” followed by tremendous defeat and relapse back to the very sin we thought we were beginning to conquer. 

When we constantly deal with the symptoms, we tend to fall prey to legalism (depending on our moral achievements rather than our faith in Christ) or discouragement.  We get discouraged because we can never ultimately find victory over the sins that seem to plague our very existence.  This discouragement usually leads to the downward spiral into sin that we are all very familiar with.  As I look at my own life, one of the greatest truths of Scripture that has helped me grow in leaps and bounds in my spiritual life was to deal with the root problem and to stop focusing on the symptoms so much.  If you grasp this truth you will see victory over sin, healthier and better relationships, and a renewed desire to be transformed into the image of Christ. 

If you don’t know Christ, you need to know that you have no power over sin, you are a slave to it.  What you desperately need is a relationship with God found only through faith in Jesus Christ who died for your sins.  He is the only one who has conquered sin and death but he freely offers this power to you.  A new and better life is not the primary motivation you need though, that is the byproduct, the icing on the cake.  You’re motivation must stem from a recognition that you are a sinner in need of a savior.   You cannot come to Christ because you desire a “better” or “easier” life.  You must come to Christ so you can have life.  He must consume your life.

Scripture tells us that the root problem of all our sin is found in our heart.  Our heart is our mission control center.  Hebrews 4:12 tells us that our heart has, “thoughts and intentions.”  The heart is the source of our motives and desires.  Our greatest problem is that our heart is not basically good—even as a Christian you struggle with unruly wants, sinful desires, wrong drives, “needs,” sinful passions, misplaced expectations, “remnant sin.” If you are going to find any victory over sin, you must understand and embrace what the Bible teaches about your heart (Jeremiah 17:-5-10; Mark 7:21-23).  Your heart is alive not empty or passive and it takes work to understand it (Proverbs  20:5). 

It’s really all about worship.  You and I were made to be worshipers of the true and living God.  Romans 1 tells us that God has made himself known to all of mankind and his invisible attributes are seen throughout all of creation.  He has also made himself known to every conscience, giving us a built in, innate understanding that he exists.  The problem is that we turn to other “gods.”  We worship the creation rather than the creator.  While most of us don’t worship idols made from wood or metal, we do worship idols of our hearts.

Paul Tripp says that an idol of the heart is, “anything that rules me other than God.  As worshiping beings, human beings always worship someone or something.  This is not a situation where some people worship and some people don’t.  If God isn’t ruling my heart, someone or something will.  It is the way we were made” (Paul Tripp
Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands).  

If that wasn’t enough, what makes matters worse is that our idolatry is hidden.  It’s deceptive and it exists underground.  We can go to church, tithe, participate in small groups and even serve in the church yet at the level of what we are living for, we have forsaken God for something else.  We steal the worship that rightly belongs to God and give it to someone or something else.  This is the life that is shaped by satisfaction of cravings, rather than by heartfelt commitment and faithfulness. This life does not find it’s satisfaction in God.

So what does this tend to look like in our lives?  What exactly do we tend to worship? Well, anything desirable can be worshiped… Power, pleasure, people, protection, physical health, popularity, peace, prestige, play… there’s just a few and I can think of plenty more that don’t start with the letter “p!”  Ultimately, we tend to worship our comfort and our self.  Keep in mind that the body will never do anything without the heart consenting.

Here are some other ways idolatry can rear it’s ugly head:

a) Wanting or desiring something that God does not want or desire.
b) Wanting something that God wants or desires but wanting it so much that one becomes ungodly to get it or ungodly if they don’t.
c) Being controlled by expectations and becoming ungodly in thought, word, or deed when the expectation is not realized.
d) Perceiving a deserved right and following through with ungodly thoughts, words, and actions to try to get it when that right is denied.
e) Believing in something, a standard or rule, that is not of God and that leads to ungodly practices.
f) Thinking, having a mindset that is against the truth of God’s Word, that leads to ungodliness in thoughts, words, and actions.

If you’re with me, you recognize that you may be in need of some serious heart surgery.  Dealing with the symptoms is like treating cancer with a bandaid.  We need to be aware of what we are worshiping so we can treat it accordingly.  Pray and ask God to reveal the potential idols in your heart.

In the next post we’ll learn how to treat the problem but let me leave you with some hope.  You can have victory over sin.  You can break the cycle or pattern that you’ve been living in.  You can learn how to evaluate your heart.  God’s Word is sufficient and the Holy Spirit is able and willing to help in ways you can’t imagine.  Let me give you the first step to victory… repent.  Pray to God, confess your idolatry and ask for his forgiveness.  He will wipe your slate clean!  What an encouragement to know that God is ready to give you a new start.  What a great God we serve!

Ian Hales