I would like to give you an opportunity to read the introduction of my up and coming book. Endeavors of The Heart
Endeavors of The Heart (The Search for God)
Introduction
Throughout the history of man many a war was presumably initiated in part because of religion, or should I say because of Man believing that the righteousness of God gave him power to declare war. Jeremiah 17:9
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
It is my belief that no war was ever because of religion, they have always been because of the wickedness of men’s hearts that were grasping for whatever they could find to fulfill their own endeavors. When I think about the transitions that our nation went through during the Donald Trump administration and the era of COVID, It troubles me to think how drastically the thought patterns of many were altered. This is where we have come to be in our search to truly find God. It has become filled with the white noise of adverse endeavors of the heart, blockades of personal opinion, lust for reward, and inability to accept simply being in a place of misunderstanding. If you are venturing into the pages of this book, let me begin by saying that unless you’re willing to reconsider much of what you have come to trust, the chapters that follow this introduction will offer you no growth whatsoever. I know that this applies to many of you because the falling away from the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God is greater in this day than ever before. In a portion of the letter that Paul wrote to the Hebrews he confronted the repercussions of drifting away and the ongoing affect that it would have. But at the same time he showed what would be the evidence of those who stood fast to the course of Christ and did not drift away.
Hebrews 5:11-13
11 Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.
12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
13 For everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
Paul wasn’t speaking to people who didn’t know the precepts of God. He was speaking to people who did know and understood the things of Christ but had gradually drifted away to a place of not adhering to foundational principles. This is what’s happened to many within the body of Christ today. Some might say what are you talking about I would know if I was drifting. Let me give you an example that will show exactly how most of you are in a state of drifting away from foundational values without ability to see it..
If you really want to know where someone is in their ability to align with what’s right, get the opportunity to examine their driving habits. Every one of us have studied a driver’s manual and went to the DMV to have an inspector test our driving to see if it was to standard. And we pass the test simply because we did things as instructed in the manual. For most of us it doesn’t take more than five to 10 years before we are turning right on red without stopping, failing to signal, crossing solid lines, and speeding. Yet we still say that we’re a good driver, as if we can’t discern that we’re doing things contrary to the foundational standard. And nobody can tell you anything about the lack in your mobilities, because you’re so sure that you’ve got it all figured out that you become dull of hearing. (Hebrews 5:11)
There are so many things that we can accomplish in this life by going through a proper process of learning what it is that we desire to attain. The problem comes when we have been doing something for so long that we’ve become lackadaisical (lacking enthusiasm and determination, Carelessly lazy) with the procedure. It’s like working in a factory on an assembly line, when you first get there, your focus is impeccable, because you want to make sure that you get it right. But after a period, you’re able to become overly comfortable with what you’re doing. Even to the point of sometimes being careless. We do the same thing with the precepts of God, not realizing that they are like a career in computer programing. No matter how great your knowledge becomes, the foundational precepts must remain in place.
When we fail to adhere to foundational principles, its usually by choice. Like I said earlier, it’s not that we’re not aware of our wavering, we just choose to ignore it. When people speak of car collisions, they call it an accident. I don’t call them accidents; I call them collisions. I don’t call them an accident because too often they occurred because someone was doing just what they intended to do. It could have been cutting someone off, getting across the light when they know they should have stopped, looking down too long to text or read a text, or give your attention to a conversation or argument in the car when you should have been focusing on the road. They’re not accidents their collisions that occur because of someone doing exactly what they intended to do. No they didn’t intend to have a crash, but the thing that they decided to do rather than focusing on the road and proper operation of the vehicle is always what leads to the crash.
We can be just as reckless with the things of God. This is why Paul ended up having to say that many of you need to be returned to learning the foundational things. Not because you never knew them, but because You’ve somehow obtained an ability to completely disavow them. Too often your state of wavering has come from being around someone that you thought was ahead of you in growth, but their behavior was contrary to where it should have been. And you became a product of the environment that they were manifesting. Or maybe you’ve slowly receded back into the past endeavors of a fleshly heart. Allowing the things of God to remain present, but Existing in an environment that is filled with white noise, distorting the clarity of truth and Causing you to have no power to desire or initiate growth.
The concept of finding God consist of not only coming to the reality that he exists, but coming to know him, for he is a rewarder of them who diligently seek him. Tell me what person would find that there is a spectacular home waiting for them to take possession of it, journey to the location of that home, and never enter to tour it. Isn’t it the same when you claim to have found god and stand with a lack of interest to know his heart. If you don’t know him in his sovereignty, you will remain unable to elevate him above the other gods that will exist in your life. The key to rising above this state of hindrance is understanding that the heart of man under his own control is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9)
Hebrews 3:10 says:
Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, they do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.
The heart of man under his own control is likened to a freight train coming off a of a mountain at 100 miles an hour. It’s configured for disaster. That’s the reason why when Jesus gave the foundational precept of god, he began with the Lord thy God is one Lord. You must first receive him as the Sovereign authority within your life. But that’s only the beginning, because now you must learn to love the Lord thy God with all your HEART, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength (Mathew 22:37). It must begin with your heart, because this is the ground of spiritual manifestation. It is from here that all the attributes of man are controlled. If the endeavors of the heart are perverted, the search for the heart of God is hindered. In Psalms 51:10-13 David prayed
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.
David’s prayer sought restoration of the heart, soul, and spirit. Not for himself only, but also that sinners might come to know God through his witness. The vastness of the heart of God is beyond the intellectual comprehension of man, therefore his ways must be understood through a clean heart. That’s why we must diligently seek him. Because there is never a point of arrival. It is a lifelong journey into understanding the depth of who he is and all that he would desire of us; moment by moment. My biggest concern is that we have failed to be evidence of the glory of God among men. The world has watched us and rather than seeing a reason for change, they have in most cases come to believe that there’s no need for change. If we are to be true evidence of everything that should be in the life of a committed son of God, we must first find the hindering factors that too often are rooted in the endeavors of the heart. I pray that the chapters ahead of you will be the beginning of an ability to search yourself with sincerity.
