Even though I’ve taught about the battle of the heart and the battle of the hands for years, I didn’t realize until recently that each battle is a perfect fit for the Thrive concept.
The battle of the heart involves digging deep.
The battle of the hands involves reaching out.
When that Alabama farmer told us that the root system of the giant oak tree reaches beneath the earth as much as its limbs stretch into the sky, we walked away from the tree so I could get a wide angle for a photo. When we made our way back to the tree a few minutes later, Psalm 1 popped into my mind. I quoted it in chapter 2.
Now read the first sentence of the passage in the negative and see what happens.
Not blessed is the man
who walks in the counsel of the wicked.
If all of your counsel comes from the world, you’re going down. That’s when you find you’re no longer walking but standing in the company of sinners, and the way you live confuses other people. They think, I don’t want anything to do with his God if that’s what it means. It’s no different from where I am right now.
Now you’re no longer even standing. You’re sitting with the scoffers. You’re in the middle of a church service picking apart everyone and everything, with your mind wrapped around everything but Christ.
It’s a pattern. It’s a slow fade.
You’re not the first person Satan ever messed with. He made war with God. Figuring you out probably didn’t take long. He knows just what buttons to push, and he keeps his fingers right there. He doesn’t need to hit you with any new temptations. He’s got your favorites on speed dial. He hits you with the same ones over and over and over until you feel like more and more and more of a failure.
After Jesus had fasted for forty days in the wilderness, Satan tempted even him. At Christ’s physically weakest point, he still knew what to do. Every time Satan hit him with temptation, Jesus answered him with Scripture.
The battle of the heart requires digging in and establishing a vibrant root system. I have to hide God’s Word in my heart so I don’t sin against him. I have to guard my time with God every day because it’s the first thing the Enemy attacks. He would much rather have you coast from church meeting to church meeting without engaging in the Lord. If you don’t learn to feed yourself, you wind up dumpster diving for someone else’s leftovers.
If we keep planting things into our old life, what will come out of us? Old life. We have to dig deep into our new life, and when we read God’s Word, we hear his voice.
In the battle of the heart, I want to be so in tune with the Holy Spirit that I don’t question whether I’m in step with Jesus. I know I am. Like a child who knows his mother is always near, I want to walk in the assurance of God’s presence. I want temptation to stink in my nose. I want sin to sicken me rather than to woo me.
Galatians 6:7 – 8 is our GPS on how to get there: “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”
Why do we feel closer to the Lord after we spend only one hour at church on Sunday? Because we took the time to pour into our new life. What if that was a lifestyle rather than a trip to a building every week (or every other week)? All we did was pour into our new life and starve our old life. We closed out the world and the distractions and opened up his Word, and in just one hour our perspective changed.
This is an irrefutable principle: When I sow to the Spirit, God’s Spirit begins to change my thinking, my tastes, my will, my emotions. This is how I learn to walk in the assurance of God’s presence. This is how temptation that once enticed me now reeks to me.
When I wage the battle of the heart and pour into my new life, then new life will come out.
While the battle of the heart involves digging in and growing our roots on God’s Word, the battle of the hands is how I refer to obedience. It’s all about working out through our hands what God has worked into our hearts.
When we yield to Jesus, he works through us to reach others. We cannot produce fruit in and of ourselves any more than a detached tree limb lying on the ground can produce leaves.
I want my heart to be so close to God that I would never dream of surrendering in the battle of the hands. This means that sometimes, through a sheer act of my will, I’ll choose to obey the Lord I love by refusing to go there or join in that or click on this.
All of us have our this, that, and there.
What you direct your hands to do reveals the condition of your heart. Your actions are the outward expression of an inner reality. If you were a tree, your heart would be your root system and your hands would be your branches.
At the end of Luke 6:45, Jesus says that out of the abundance of the heart a person’s mouth speaks. In the same way, out of the overflow of the heart our hands act and our feet move.
Now check out the context of that verse. Notice what Jesus uses as his first object lesson:
“No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”
Luke 6:43 – 45
I know my flighty heart. I know I can be the first guy to cave in to temptation. I do go there. I do jump into this. I do click on that. I do flip to that channel. How did I get there? How did my heart bend away from God when I seemed to be doing well? Because that’s what hearts do. They’re made of flesh.
Even though I try to guard my heart so it will stay bent toward God, I still need to set up some roadblocks that will help when my heart gets fickle and tries to pull away from the Lord.
You don’t have to struggle with viewing inappropriate websites to know the Internet is a hazard. Sometimes all you have to do is check your e-mail, and you’ll stumble across vile content in spam. It’s out there, and Satan steers it straight to you. That’s why we need wonderful aids like Covenant Eyes (covenanteyes.com) to serve as a roadblock against pornography and undesirable content.
Maybe porn isn’t your issue. Your roadblocks may need to be against Pinterest posts on the latest and greatest fashion accessories. You may need to erect roadblocks in the gym to make sure you don’t turn fitness into the pursuit of a body that becomes your idol. The Enemy knows your buttons. So put up roadblocks that prevent you from even going there in your thoughts.
Let’s be willing to set up barriers. We all want to be able to say we did the right thing because our heart is right with God. But the truth is that sometimes we need to be safe — even when we do have an intimate walk with the Lord. It’s not smart at any time to put good people in bad situations, because anything can happen. In fact, if you’re like me, some of your biggest times of temptation come immediately on the heels of great blessings or mountaintop experiences with God.
The best roadblock is to have a friend to whom you give the right to get into your business. The arrangement, however, needs to be authentic. Don’t play games. If you want it, mean it. Everyone wants an accountability partner until it’s time to be held accountable. I’ve seen this before:
“Ask me anything you want.”
One month later: “Oh, you’re so holy to ask me that. Why are you so legalistic and judgmental?”
It helps to give godly friends permission to check our oil and then be careful not to dismiss what they say. It’s time to get smart and take the offensive. We have to jump on this battle and stop waiting for life to happen to us. Remember, we’re supposed to be the hands and feet of Jesus. Let’s fight to keep those hands pure so we can reach out and allow what’s in our roots to seep out to impact others.
Point to Remember
The battle of the heart and hands can strengthen our new life.