Good News for the
Head-Heart Tug-of-War
All my life I have heard about the conflict Christians experience between their head and heart. The story usually goes something like this: “In my head, I know what is the right thing to do. But my heart wants to do something else.” I have said this sentence myself.
In practice, this works out in various ways. For example: “In my head I know that I should forgive this person, but everything inside me is against the idea of forgiving them. I hate what they did. If only I could get my heart to catch up to where my head is, I might be able to forgive.”
Or in terms of temptation, it might sound a bit like: “I know that lust is wrong, but I can’t seem to help myself. Sometimes I get to obsessing about this one person, and I can’t stop. My head knows it’s wrong, but my heart is still full of lust.”
Well here’s the good news – we have it backwards!
The truth is that our heart was made right with God when He regenerated our spirit. It’s our mind that needs to be transformed. This is good news because we generally think of our heart as being at the very our core of our soul. And if my heart is rotten, then I’m always dealing with a problem seems too deep for real help. Like it would take a miracle to change that part of me.
But God actually gave me a new heart! That part of me that wants to do good is at the very core of my being! Those parts of me that want to do wrong are the remnants of malformation that still reside in my flesh and mind – not in the depths of my soul. And according to the Bible, my flesh can be purified over time and my mind can be transformed!
My heart was remade with the real righteousness of God! What is now left for to me to do in concert with His Spirit is to work out that righteousness in my flesh and mind.
That is GOOD NEWS !