* Keep your heart with all diligence. (Proverbs 4)

 

Comments by Joan Boney:

Ideas come into our minds and if those ideas are of God they are wonderful to think upon and to allow them to go down into our heart.

But when ideas are not of God and we allow those thoughts to get into our hearts, at some point they are likely to bear fruits and cause trouble for us and for others.

In Genesis 6:5, God said:  And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

The works of the flesh of man are:  adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like:  (Gal. 5:19-21)

The only thing making us better than man of Genesis 6 is Jesus who died for our sins and God giving us HIS Spirit who is good!

As we follow God's Spirit we produce the fruits of HIS Spirit:   love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: (Gal. 5:22-23)

Our flesh never improves no matter what we do.  It is always there and is opposite from the Spirit given to us by God.  So we must choose those ideas given us by the Spirit of God and when we go that way we overcome our flesh and keep our flesh down.

If we think on things of God, good goes into our hearts.

If we think of things of our own flesh, evil goes down into our hearts.

The apostle Paul said:  Romans 7:19 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing:

David prayed:  

Psalm 51:10-12   

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

11 Cast me not away from THY presence; and take not THY Holy Spirit from me.

12 Restore unto me the joy of THY salvation; and uphold me with THY free spirit.

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Proverbs 23:7   For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.

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II Cor. 10

3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:

4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)

5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

God taught me to examine those thoughts that come into my mind and to bring such into agreement with the word of God.  God taught me to turn to HIM in prayer asking HIM about that fearful thought.  Frequently after doing that God would settle me by reminding me of a scripture or a concept.  And as I thought on that which God brought me it went down into my own heart and uprooted the thought that was from devil or from my own flesh.

Matthew 12  Jesus said:

33 Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.

34 O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

35 A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.

36 But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.

37 For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.

We store up good treasure in our hearts by thinking on the Word which God sends to us by HIS Spirit.

We make our hearts good after we are born again, by thinking on those things that are of God and from God.

God taught me to meditate on the Word that HE brings to my attention by HIS Holy Spirit for that is the Word that I need at that point in time.

And also we do that Word and continue to do that Word. (Doing things appropriate to that word.)

John 8:31-32  Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on HIM, If ye continue in MY word, then are ye MY disciples indeed;  And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

God reminds us of a scripture and we focus on that scripture doing that which is appropriate to the instruction of that scripture ... and continuing to do that scripture.

As we live in that scripture, it becomes a way of life to us and a part of us.  And we lay up our treasure in heaven by becoming one with that Word that comes down from heaven to us.

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