“Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.” Proverbs 4:23
“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.” 2 Cor. 10:4-5
One morning the Spirit of God convicted me. Big time. He showed me how much despite my desire to walk by faith in the Lord and in His Word, to live according to His Spirit’s leading which is always in accordance with His Word, I had unconsciously fallen headlong into doubt. And plenty of it.
Picture a beautiful hand knit shawl. Then picture moths feasting on it so there is still a shawl. But the shawl is now moth eaten. There are holes everywhere. The shawl still functions. But functions very poorly. Not as it was intended. My faith was like that. Only I hadn’t noticed all the moths. I hadn’t seen all the holes. And the holes were not in a shawl. They were in the faith in my heart. I still had faith. Even more so than I had had in earlier years. But my faith had been weakened by the holes caused by doubt. And the doubt, I realized when the Spirit of God brought this all to my attention, was caused by the devil AND BY THE FACT I HAD BEEN LISTENING TO THE DEVIL SPEAK HIS LIES TO ME RATHER THAN LISTENING TO THE SPIRIT OF GOD SPEAK TO ME IN LINE WITH HIS WORD.
I had kept starting off excitedly and joyously with a faith filled heart, but then allowed the devil to speak his lies to me. Instead of guarding my heart against the devil’s lies and the accompanying doubt, and resisting the wrong thoughts or purging myself of them once I realized I had allowed them into my heart, I had opened wide my heart and allowed in the “moths” with their despicable plans – and had allowed them to remain to keep eating away at my faith “shawl”.
If you had a beautiful shawl, and you know it was at risk of being attacked by moths, would you hand the shawl over to the moths? Or would you protect the shawl and lovingly, diligently, faithfully, no pun intended, care for it?
Is it not true that some of us spend more love, time, and care in trying to protect the material stuff in our lives that we consider important and precious to us than we strive to protect our hearts and our faith in the Lord and His Word?
That morning, I repented before God for all the doubt and other sin I had allowed in my heart, and resolved in His strength by His Spirit through His Word to diligently guard my heart and take great care to remember there is nothing more precious in the universe than the Lord, His Spirit, His Word, His will, His plan, His purpose, His salvation, His spiritual blessings, and the faith He gives us and grows in us by His Spirit through His Word through which we learn day by day to follow Jesus Christ as Lord.
If you are a Christ follower, why not examine your heart? Is it possible you, too, have been allowing the “moths” to eat away at your faith? If you do not yet believe in and follow Christ as Lord, are you ready to place your faith in the Lord and to learn how to live for Him?