Daily Manna Devotion: "The Tainted Heart"
Reading Time: 6 mins. 7 secs.
Scripture Readings: Hebrews 12:1; Jeremiah 29:11; Genesis 12:2; Matthew 5:14-16.
Read Last Devotional: When God's Word Seems Obscure
Day 14
What does the word "taint" even mean? At least I know it rhymes with paint. When the Lord gave me this message on today I began to search the definition of the word and this is what I came up with according to webster.com: to contaminate morally; to affect with putrefaction (corruption); to touch or affect slightly with something bad.
I also want to share the definition for dictionary.com. I am not going to share all of the definitions, but only the ones which caught my attention. When using the word as a noun it states it as a trace of dishonor or discredit; obsolete, color; tint.
Now what I have to say, I will intertwine closely how these definitions relate.
As Christians and believers of Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, we are to represent Him in a way that reflects being made into His image. Because we were made by God to be like Him, we are characterized by some of His attributes: holiness, faithfulness, wisdom, love, justice, and mercy just to name a few.
Our salvation and redemption have been designed so simple for us because of Christ. Jesus dying on the cross and paying the ultimate atonement for our sins is what set the stage for us today as we are able to freely offer up the sacrifices of our hearts as we ask God for forgiveness. There are no more sacrifices of animals to pay the price for this, Jesus has paid it all! And this was purposefully done so that our experience with our Savior would become that much more powerful and intriguing.
Because of this simplicity that our God has graced us with, there are many who take advantage of His love. Before this ultimate sacrifice was made, most knew they were in sin as there were many who died as a result of it, being made examples for others to fear.
But today, our spiritual senses are being darkened as many of us are becoming dull to the conviction of sin in our hearts.
As the Lord began showing me this, my spirit became so grieved as my heart began to cry out for God's children. As I was in this grievous prayer, I asked the Lord what was going on in the body of Christ. Just as I asked, I walked into my bathroom and noticed a large piece of dust on the floor, filled with lint, dirt, and all kinds of varied debris. This must have come from my vacuum cleaner some days prior as I was attempting to clean it out.
I proceeded to step over it because I was in a hurry to throw something else into the trash. It was here when He spoke as He advised me to pay attention to this.
He said, "Just as you refused to pay attention to the lint on the floor to pick it up and throw it away, this is what many of my people have been doing with the sin in their hearts. Even though I have been prompting them to deal with certain areas of their lives, they have refused to deal with them. These are not areas that they are unaware of, they know these areas well because I have made them very obvious. They are yet refusing to listen."
When I heard the Lord speak this to my spirit, I turned around to pick up the lint and realized that it had been down there for at least three days. I began to feel sorrowful for the sin that was in my own heart as I quietly repented.
Now back to the definitions I gave above for the word taint. What place does sin have in our hearts? Its design is to corrupt our hearts completely, damaging our moral character when left undealt with. What is important to note is that when sin begins conception inside our hearts, it first begins to affect us slightly. The changes we may see will become relevant to only ourselves while others may never know. This is just the beginning stage.
But as sin begins to take root, meaning it's been there for quite some time, here is where the problem really begins. Due to our failure of not dealing with situations in our lives, we will begin stuffing things. We stuff our emotions. We stuff harmful events. We begin to stuff a lot of mess until we can't any longer.
After all of this stuffing and passivity, replacements of other things begin to arise. Addictions, obsessive compulsive disorders, sickness (mental and physical), and all sorts of things will begin to replace, what we originally, should have been dealing with in our hearts. But, we still don't deal with them because we'd rather replace and remove ourselves from pain than to expose harmful substances and elevate our victory over them.
So now, our hearts become tainted with bitterness, envy, strife, unforgiveness, anger, rejection just to name a few. Trust me, these are only a few for there are many other things our hearts can become tainted with!
We are being used by God, but tainted! Some of us are getting so used to this routine that it doesn't even feel like anything's wrong. But we're tainted. We're hurting. We're sinking so far down into the quicksand and we don't even realize it. We don’t want to realize it. We're yet deceived.
But, God doesn't want this for any of us. He loves us. He longs for us to commune with Him.
He wants to pull down the walls we've built that tells Him, "Don't come past this point...for no one is allowed!"
He desires to make us all whole! It was never His will for us to be hurt, rejected, confused, and downtrodden. He wants the best for us as it states in Jeremiah 29:11:
"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
He wants to make our name great before many nations so that we will be a blessing (Genesis 12:2). Yes, I know He told this to Abraham, but we are from Abraham's genealogy and as believers of Christ, we are as a light set upon a hill which cannot be hidden (Matthew 5:14-16).
But on the flip side, when sin goes undealt with in our hearts, this same light which has been set upon a hill can also become dishonored and discredited. This is how far our tainted hearts will get us when we don't deal with its tinge. The tainted heart will cause us to become contaminated to a point of our gifts being obsolete; not being able to function properly. This hinders the work that God really desires for us.
As believers, we should all have a mind to not want to leave this world until our work that God has ordained for us has been completed and that God is well pleased!
Look inside your heart today. Has the Lord been prompting you to deal with things {situations, fears, resentments} which have been present for a while? Even the things which may have just gotten there, you don't have to let it settle and take residence. The Lord can free you if you only give it to Him and allow His healing to take over.
Prayer: Lord, I thank you for dealing with the secret things inside of my heart. Even though it's painful, I trust that you will help me to rid me of any and everything that is harmful to my spirit as well as my body. Lord, I ask that you will bring to the surface, in due time, all of the things I have been suppressing and not wanting to deal with because of the pain. I trust you completely with my heart! I thank you in Jesus' name. Amen!
Quiet time meditation: Wait for the Lord to minister to you personally on what He may want to say to you. Be sure to pay attention to any areas that may pop up in your spirit (even silly things such as: how quick you may be to get angry with things or a friend or family member who has been bugging you with their problems.) This process could take anywhere from 10-30 minutes or longer. But, try not to rush this because you could be missing out on a great breakthrough. Within this quiet time, the Lord wants to restore you in any broken areas and he wants to replenish your spirit for what has been used up.
Understanding what He means: This is a time to jot down some of those things the Lord has ministered to you while in meditation. Sometimes, the Lord will wait to speak to you throughout your day. Pay attention and jot these things down so that you won’t forget. You may even come up with more scriptures that may come to mind.
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May the Lord bless your day abundantly!
To access days 1-13 devotionals, click here.