Bishop's Corner

Search your heart for strife, unbelief, malice, jealousy, un-forgiveness, etc. God always looks at the heart -- not titles. He said, "They praise me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." (Matthew 15: 8)

Your heart is where life begins.  What is in your heart is what you become. “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” (Proverbs 23:7) What is in your heart in abundance is what consistently comes forth out of your mouth [good or bad; positive or negative] “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” (Matthew 12:34; Luke 6:45)

Words are powerful! “Guard your heart with all diligence…” (Proverbs 4:23) Search your heart for strife, unbelief, malice, jealousy, un-forgiveness, etc.  God always looks at the heart -- not titles.  He said, “They praise me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” (Matthew 15: 8) When your heart is right, righteousness is created within you.  Your enemy will try and come through different means; spouses, children, and loved ones for instance, but you must have a heart to always respond positively.  You can’t control how people treat you (except through the power of prayer), but you can control how you treat them, and how you respond to how they treat you. 

Your heart is your true being and where you create who you want to be.  Always remain teachable, and always be willing to serve others.  Your heart influences your mind – your thinking.  David was a man after God’s heart, but with a thought he ended up sinning. 

Everything starts with a thought.  Your body is what houses your soul, but your Spirit man should always dominate.  God reveals in Hebrews why the first generation out of Egypt failed and died in the wilderness, and why He was grieved with that generation.  “They do always err in their hearts, because they have not known my ways.”  (Psalms 95:10) They did not know their God because they had no personal relationship with Him.

God never created us to live independent of Him.  “In Him we live, move, and have our being...” (Acts 17:28) Matthew 13:15-16 reads, “These people’s hearts are waxed gross and ears dull…” People are so accustomed to doing things in a certain way that they don’t want to change.  Some people love darkness and sin more than light, but God’s thoughts and ways are higher than ours. 

We can’t afford to have wrong hearts.