The desires of your heart, and the sincerity of it are what the Lord looks upon, and what our adversary seeks to manipulate you with through temptations.
“Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” (Psalm 37:4)
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9)
It is quite clear from just these two verses that all who have been born-again have two hearts, two natures, the stony heart that is slowly being chipped away at, and the one of flesh that is replacing it, and if you were not aware of this truth, it is going to take the entirety of your life for this to happen.
My friends, you will not die holy, righteous and perfect in this life, except for in the eyes of the Almighty.
“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” (2nd Cor. 5:21)
Until then, and until we are glorified, this truth will remain.
“For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.” (Romans 7:18)
The heart that is deceitful within us is the same heart that reveals our sincerest desires to the Lord, and at its foundation, those who are hid in Christ want nothing less than for every last vestige of stone to be removed from our heart. We want not only to know in our minds that serve Him the love we have for Him, but to be able to feel His love as well, we want to keep every thought captive for Christ without the constant barrage of the lusts of our flesh.
We want to be free indeed, to not only experience the peace that passes all understanding occasionally, but continually.
But you must set your mind to this truth, in this life none of that is going to happen.
So then, what’s the plan? In your patience possess your soul, or live a life of constant frustrations in this regard? Here is your answer.
Both.
Can you understand this cry from the depth of your soul a little better now?
“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:24)
Breathe a sigh of relief, give thanks to your Father in heaven, realize that one day the battle will end, and get back to the work of serving the Almighty for His glory.
You have two choices here, you can live a life of self-depreciation, a life of nearly constantly deriding yourself because of those sinful thoughts, and sometimes actions, against your heart of flesh, or you can believe this truth, sanctification takes an entire lifetime.
“For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” (Gal. 5:17)
You can live a life for His glory, realizing the battle with your flesh, your old nature, will never come to an end until the moment that you are glorified and it is removed forever, or a life of continual despair, which is the plan of Satan for you, because you cannot be who you want to be in and for the Lord Jesus Christ, you will not free yourself from the guilt, will not accept the truth that you have been forgiven.
“Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.” (1st Peter 1:16)
I can’t be. But I have a sincere desire to be, and so we fight the battle with our flesh every day.
War torn and scarred, arriving at that strait gate with armor pelted, dented and marred by the fiery darts of our adversary, held threadbare upon us because of the countless times our old nature coerced us into taking it off on so many occasions.
If the man of God can only drag himself in the end to that strait gate, that is what he will do.
The desires of our heart freely given to us by our Father in heaven, who will love us throughout all eternity, who knows far better than we ever will that as long as we breathe the air of this planet our heart will remain deceitful within us.
If you will not fight yourself, you will not stand in the day of adversity.
“In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” (Prov. 3:6)
