April 4
Far too often we focus our eyes and our energy on the things that are unimportant. We judge ourselves and others about the things that go into our bodies more than we focus on that which is coming out. God is not concerned about the pork we do or do not eat, neither is He concerned about the red meat we decide to wean ourselves from. He is far more concerned about what our hearts exudes because the things we put into our bodies will surely come out since it entered our stomachs rather than our hearts. But the things that come out of us are enough to defile us because our hearts are a representation of our true self. From our hearts stems evil thoughts, schemes, and many different sins, so it is, therefore, our hearts that brings about defilement.
We need to shift the focus to our hearts and plead with the Lord to cleanse our hearts. We need Him to take away everything that is contrary to Him while purifying us inside out. Let us work on our hearts where every good and evil stem from because that is what our Lord is concerned with. Keeping this in mind we must be intentional in our ways that we may not lose focus or forget the things that truly defile.
Mark 7:18-23
“Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.) He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”
