A condition of the heart

"Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither [can] a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit." - Matthew 7:17-18.

The Lord in this passage was warning people against false prophets and false teachers. However, He gave them a way in which they could test their truthfulness. This was to examine their fruit. If it was bad they were false and if it was good they were genuine. However, this is not the thrust of my discussion but the principle contained in these verses is what I want to teach concerning the way people respond to situations in their lives and why.

For fruit to be good, the tree has to be good. For the fruit to be bad, the tree has to be bad. Now the Lord said, “O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. 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." - Matthew 12: 34-35. Before that he had said “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.” - Matthew 12: 33. From this we see that the condition of one’s heart determines what comes out of it. As you can see, good things come out of good stored within not from the outside and also, whatever fills the heart is what comes out. Example, if kindness and compassion are stored up in your heart, you will be kind and compassionate to people. Likewise if hatred and bitterness is within your heart, you will be spiteful and quick to despise people. Unless your heart is full of goodness you cannot bear good fruit. The Word declares this as you have seen in the scripture. Matthew 15:18-19 says, “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies”

What I want to teach is that, the condition of your heart is what determines the way you respond to situations in your life. Many people have repaid evil for evil and have justified themselves by saying if the other person had not done such and such a thing to them they would not have done what they did. Or they say what they did was justified on the basis of what the other person had done. For example, you could retaliate when someone insults you or ill-treats you and say it was justified but listen to the Word, "Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but[ rather] give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance[ is] mine; I will repay, saith the Lord” - Romans 12:19. Clearly it is not our responsibility to punish any wrongdoing done to us or anyone else but God’s. We need to graft this into our hearts and minds, because when we revenge or avenge, we have taken that responsibility upon ourselves in direct disobedience to the Word of God. So what do I mean when I say the condition of your heart determines your response to situations in your life? The nature of your heart and what’s in it is what determines your response. If your heart is Godly, you will respond to situations in a Godly manner. If your heart is evil you will respond to situations in an ungodly manner. Here is an illustration, if you put salt in water it dissolves, but if you put sand, it does not dissolve. Because they differ in nature, salt dissolves whereas sand doesn’t. What do I mean? The common thing in both situations is water, so water is not the issue. The issue is the substances being put into the water. If we take water to be the situation and salt and sand to be two different people, we see that they react differently to the same situation. What am I saying? It is who you are and the condition of your heart that determine the way you respond to a situation and not the situation itself. I have used an example that I made up. Let me use one the Lord Himself used. Read Matthew 7:24-27. In this passage, the Lord says putting His Word into practice is like a wise man that builds his house on a rock. When the storm comes, the house remains standing. He also says to not put His Word into practice is like a foolish man that builds his house on sand. When the storm comes, the house is destroyed. The principle is the same. The common thing in both situations is the storm. What is different is where the houses were built. If we take the storm to be the situation and the foundations of the houses to be the condition of the heart, we see that as a result of the differing conditions of these hearts the responses were different to the same situation. Here is another declaration: it is not the situation that matters but the condition of your heart or your character that matters. Do not dwell on what has happened but learn from your response what the condition of your heart is. The more you are refined into the likeness of Jesus Christ, the more appropriately you will respond to situations in your life.

Many of us have been hurt, insulted, persecuted, abused, used, despised, scorned, rejected, ignored, battered, hated, tempted, tried and have gone from hardship to hardship. And sometimes we wonder if we will ever be happy. Understand this, true happiness is only found in the Lord so you have to seek the Lord. Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

If you read the Hebrews 11 especially verses 32 to the end, you will learn that the prophets and men of God were ill-treated, maimed and killed for God’s sake. Not belittling what you might have gone through, you never read in the Word that these guys avenged or revenged what was done to them or someone else. It was always the Lord who fought the battles. 2 Chronicles 20:15 says, “…Thus saith the LORD unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle [is] not yours, but God’s.” These prophets are witnesses and their stories serve as encouragement for us to be able to endure hardship. The essence of my message is found in 1 Peter 2:23 that says, “Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed[ himself] to him that judgeth righteously.” This is referring to the Lord when He walked the earth.

1. He was hated but did not retaliate with hate.
2. He suffered but did not threaten those that opposed Him.
3. He had faith in the Father whom He knew was just and hence entrusted Himself into His hands for He knew God repays everyone according to what they have done. This liberated Him to be able to forgive them as it is written in Luke 23:34, “Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”

This is a call to faith and renewal of our minds. Jesus assures us that we will face hardship in our lives and there is good reason too. Hebrews 12:7 says, “If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?” The writer also quotes from Proverbs 3:11-12 which says, “My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction: For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son [in whom] he delighteth.” There are two instructions in these verses. The first is not to despise the Lord’s discipline. To despise God’s discipline is show contempt for it. For example, you might blame God for your suffering out of a bitter heart. Remember bitterness is not a fruit of the Spirit and hence such a response is ungodly coming from an ungodly heart. If you do not see hardship and suffering as way of God’s discipline, thus despising it, you will not develop as a Christian to maturity and hence you could develop a bitter and spiteful heart thus stunting your spiritual growth as a result of this immaturity. After all God disciplines us that we may share in His holiness and without holiness no one will see God. Hebrews 12:9-10, “Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected [us,] and we gave [them] reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened [us] after their own pleasure; but he for [our] profit, that [we] might be partakers of his holiness” and v14, “Follow peace with all [men,] and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.” The second instruction is not to become weary. To become weary means giving up. You would have given your life to Jesus but then you begin to face hardship and so are tempted to let go of your confession of faith and if you grow weary, you give up. God is encouraging us not to grow weary but to see hardship as His discipline for us so that we can mature as Christians. Remember the parable of the sower (Matthew 13:1-23). In that parable, Jesus talks of seed that falls on rocky places. He explains the rocky places to be trouble and persecution and says when they come “He is offended.” To be offended is to be hurt and upset to the point you give up i.e. fall away from the faith and no good fruit is produced as a result of this. So in a nutshell we are being instructed to take hardship as discipline from God and not to give up as we endure it for if we give up our faith, it may be an indication that we never made that commitment to God in the first place.

Don’t get me wrong here. It is a fact that hardship and suffering are painful. Hebrews 12:11 says, “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.” Look at what the Word says; later it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness. Can you see that at this point you are now producing good fruit? All the time you were suffering hardship, God was making you a good tree so that you produce good fruit. Remember Matthew 12:33. God is taking the evil the world had stored in you, out of you and is storing good in you so that you produce good fruit. Oh how wonderful the mercy of God is. Now look at the beauty of this, 1 Peter 1:6-7 says, “Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ” 2 Corinthians 4:17 says “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding [and] eternal weight of glory.” What does this mean? First, the hardship is not forever. Do not ever be deceived that it is forever. It is the glory that is forever. The hardship is testing our faith and proving it to be genuine should we remain committed to God and instead of destroying us, the hardship is actually working in our favour. In 1 Peter 1:6-7 it is testing and proving our faith to be genuine, in 2 Corinthians 4:17 it is achieving for us the glory of God, in Hebrews 12:11 it is transforming us into the likeness of God, in Romans 5:3-4 it is giving us hope and in 1 Peter 2:19 it is getting us commendation from God. At this point you can say “Come on!! Bring it on!!” Yes, bring on the hardship because it can only work in your favour. This is in keeping with Romans 8:28 which says, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to [his] purpose.” In all situations get the focus of yourself and focus on Jesus Christ (Hebrews 12:2 and 2 Corinthians 4:18). When Jesus suffered on earth He kept His focus on the glory to come though at that point it was unseen and the suffering was tangible to Him. That focus enabled Him to endure the suffering and overcome. We should do likewise and keep our focus on Jesus Christ, whom we have not seen and that will empower us to endure suffering, though unjust, because we know that He is just. This is an aspect of faith because as 2 Corinthians 5:7 says, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.”

In conclusion we have learnt that it is the condition of our hearts that determines our response to any given situation. We have also learnt that the situation itself is not the issue but the heart. After all that is what God is after, your heart. We have learnt that these situations are there for our benefit rather than our destruction if we see them in that light. Remember when Joseph was showing mercy to his brothers, he said this “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; [but] God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as [it is] this day, to save much people alive.” -Genesis 50:20. This is in keeping with Hebrews 12:11.

So what are we to do? First, we should repent from the sinful ways in which we respond to hardship in our lives. This was as a result of the evil stored in our hearts. Think of the times we repaid evil for evil. The days we did not forgive those that ill-treated us. The days we cursed those that brought us suffering, abuse, insult, scorn, rejection and hatred. The days we despised the Lord’s discipline by calling Him unfair when He brought what was good for us. The days we think of giving up as a result of the hardship we suffer because we never let His Word take root in our lives. The days we lose our faith in Him who could save us and days we hardened our hearts. God is merciful and will forgive you. He loves you just as you are and you do not have to prove yourself to receive His acceptance but just put your trust in Him and you won’t be put to shame. Second, ask God for the healing of our hearts from the pain we suffered. He is faithful in this and will do it. Many of us are walking around with baggage as a result of the bitterness and hurt we never dealt with. Offload it on to Jesus for He makes this call in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come unto me, all [ye] that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke [is] easy, and my burden is light.” After all He also came to bind up the broken-hearted (Isaiah 61:1). Third, let us endure hardship with an attitude of faith in God who is just. Always considering the suffering Jesus endured as an example to us plus the many witnesses of Hebrews 11. After all, it is through faith we receive grace for salvation and be able to reign as kings (Ephesians 2:8 and Romans 5:17). Fourth, allow God to transform us into His likeness by being obedient to the Word of His only begotten Son Jesus Christ. The more we practice the Word, the more we become like the Word. Fifth, seek God and His righteousness. We were commanded to seek this first for He promises us that everything else shall be added to us. Sixth, fix our gaze on Jesus Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith. Like Paul said in Philippians 3:13-14, “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but [this] one thing [I do,] forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” That mark is Jesus Christ so let us also forget the past, fix our eyes on Jesus Christ and run the race. This calls for commitment. Seventh, make a commitment to pursue holiness without which no one will see God. God bless you.