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Habits of The Heart What is a habit of the heart? According to Webster, a habit is a characteristic condition of the mind or body; an act so often repeated by an individual that it has become automatic; a tendency to perform a certain act or behave a certain way. By the same token, a habit of the heart is a characteristic condition of the hearta spiritual act repeated so often that it has become an automatic heart response. At the moment of spiritual birth, each child of God receives a set of spiritual instincts consistent with his new nature. However, spiritual reflexes are not innate; disciplined practice on the part of the sincere believer is required before they can becomewell, habits of the heart. In this article, we will examine three habits of the heart; these conditioned responses may be capsulized by the famous slogan: STOP, LOOK and LISTEN! Habits of the heart are not meant to be a quick formula for spiritual success, nor should they be viewed as distinctly separate action steps. Rather, they represent the inner posture of the cultivated heart, the good soil which is receptive to the Word of God (Mark 4:8), bringing forth fruit that remains (John 15:16).
STOP! Many Christians are afflicted by Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Their mind is undisciplined and restless. They are constantly in motion; driven by anxiety. "Don't just stand there; do something!" says the little voice inside their head, a self-rewinding tape recorder installed by cultural reinforcement. But the Spirit of God counters with a radical new thought: "Cease striving and know that I am God" (Psalms 46:10). What God is saying to us, in effect, is: "Don't just do something; stand there!"not out of a sense of inadequacy, but because of His sufficiency! Being still requires a first-hand knowledge of God, and its spiritual prerequisites are humility and trust.
Humility and Trust Pride clings to the delusion that one can control his own destiny. Humility is born of the realization that what we attribute to chance (Proverbs 16:33), good planning (Proverbs 16:1,9) or hard work (Psalms 127:1-2) is, in fact, under God's sovereign direction and control: "The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord" (Proverbs 16:1), and "Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it" (Psalms 127:1). "For wisdom and power belong to Him. And it is He who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings; He gives wisdom to wise men and knowledge to men of understanding" (Daniel 2:20-21). Unbelief becomes agitated when things seem to go awry. Faith rests on the assurance that "all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28). Remember also that "all things work together for good" not only to the one who loves God, but also to that on which his heart is set (his godly desires in line with His will). And as for "all things," there are no exceptions! We must teach our heart to pray as the psalmist did: "O Lord, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty; nor do I involve myself in great matters, or in things too difficult for me. Surely I have composed and quieted my soul. Like a weaned child rests against his mother, my soul is like a weaned child within me" (Psalms 131:1-2).
In Quietness Unless we learn to calm our anxious heart and stand quietly in His presence. we cannot hear His voice or see His face. Frantic striving dulls our spiritual senses and causes us to misread His divine intentions. We are prone to rush headlong into situations of our own choosing, bringing needless pain upon ourselves and others, and sabotaging God's plan in the process. Do we take our appointments with the King of kings as seriously as we do our appointments with people? We need to cultivate a private garden of solitude and stillnessthat secret place where we are insulated from the world's static and can give the Lord our undivided attention. "The steadfast of mind Thou wilt keep in perfect peace, because he trusts in Thee" (Isaiah 26:3). If our mind is steadfast (fastened on God by faith), our heart will be at rest.
Waiting on God Many people thrive on excitement in serving God, but they have not learned how to sustain their involvement for the long haul. If only ministry were a hundred-yard dash, most of us would make it; but the Christian life is a marathon. What is the secret of perseverance? "He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait on the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary" (Isaiah 40:29-31). If God supplies strength and power, why do we grow weary and stumble badly? One reason God's servants experience burn-out in work and ministry is because they neglect the spiritual discipline of standing still in order to wait on God. Waiting on God enables us to catch our second wind (gain new strength) and to reach new spiritual heights (mount up with wings like eagles). Then, we can run and not get tired; we can walk and not become weary. Some of us are used to waiting in idleness while wandering in wilderness! But waiting on God requires an expectant attitude; we wait with the conviction that where we stand is holy ground, and God will reveal Himself to us there if, and only if, we meet Him on His terms. If we possess this attitude, then we are prepared for a life-changing encounter with God. However, a word of caution is in order: Waiting on God is not to be confused with spiritual "analysis-paralysis"which is the opposite of faith and obedience. God supplies the strength and the power, but we must do the walking. And although we might like to walk on water, God has called most of us to walk on dry ground! Once God has shown us His will, we must act on it as Abraham did, "not knowing where he was going" (Hebrews 11:8). It is not up to us to choose the terrain or the scenery. This is the essence of the life of faith.
LOOK! Corrie Ten Boom once said that "if you look at the world you'll be distressed; if you look within you'll be depressed; but if you look at Christ you'll be at rest!" Looking to Jesus means that we acknowledge our total dependence on Him alone. We must fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of (our) faith (Hebrews 12:2). Our hope (overwhelming confidence) is based on God's character (Lamentations 3:21-22) and has nothing to do with our circumstances. Difficult people and adverse circumstances have a tendency to distract our spiritual focus. When that happens, we experience a sense of panic; like Peter, we become aware that we are sinking. This feeling of being out of control may be a sign that we have taken our eyes off Jesus. The response of the untrained heart is to struggleto try to keep our heads above water; but the reflex response of the disciplined heart is to call out to Jesus. When the storm winds blow and we despair of life itself, remember that the Lord is with us, and He is always in complete control (Mark 4:35-41). So why look frantic when we can look up? "I will lift my eyes to the mountains, from whence shall my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth" (Psalms 121:1-2). When the psalmist lifted his eyes to the mountains surrounding Judea, he could see the high places that the people used for idol worship. This sad display of misplaced hope moved him to affirm his own faith in God; he knew that the help he needed came not from those high places, but from Yahweh. To look to Jesus is to reflect on His character. Jeremiah, a prophet who knew what it meant to stand alone in the midst of a nation who had turned its back on God, said: "This I call to mind, therefore I have hope. The Lord's lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Thy Faithfulness" (Lamentations 3:21-22). Not only is the Lord utterly trustworthy, but He also cares deeply about each one of usyes, even me! So then "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" (Romans 8:35). Looking to Jesus also means that we are learning to observe His ways. "'For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways.' declares the Lord" (Isaiah 55:8). God has a way of doing things, a way of dealing with us, that is different from our way. Do we understand what it is that He is trying to do in our lives? He brings certain people into our lives; He allows unexpected things to happen; He dashes our hopes and frustrates our plans; He closes a door and opens another; He has a peculiar sense of timing, and He seems to neglect some of our most legitimate needs and desires! What is the response of our heart? Moses' prayer was, "Let me know Thy ways, that I may know Thee" (Exodus 33:13). We know God in part by knowing His ways; He reveals something about Himself through the way He deals with us in the midst of life's experiences. Observing His ways does not mean that we try to figure out how He is going to get us there, or that we operate as though He needs our help to accomplish His purpose for our lives. Instead, we are simply to be attentive to His waysopen, responsive and teachable, so that He is free to mold us through the people, circumstances and experiences that He brings into our lives. Then He can direct our hearts and change our desires in accordance with His will. God has a different way of doing things, and we have to be trained and discipled in His way. We cannot get there by intellectual reasoning; we must look to God's Spirit to change our attitudes and the way we look at things and people. Then things begin to look possible which before seemed impossible, and things begin to sound reasonable that yesterday were so unreasonable. All of a sudden, it makes perfect sense for us to give up certain thingsthings that we used to think we could never live without, or that we thought were inalienable rights. Finally, looking to Jesus means that we live and serve at His pleasure (Philippians 2:13). "As the eyes of the servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God" (Psalms 123:2). This speaks of a servant's dependence: we look to Him "to be gracious to us"; not demanding, but in a spirit of humility. Secondly, it speaks of a servant's vigilance: we look to the Master for our instrucptions; His wish is our command. A well-trained servant is one who has honed the spiritual skill of "eye-hand coordination," with eyes fixed on Jesus and our actions guided by His will. But there is one more reason to look into His face: "We all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit" (II Corinthians 3:18). The skin of Moses' face shone while he talked with Yahweh. though he was unaware of it (Exodus 34:29). If we have the habit of looking perpetually into the face of our Lord, the glory of His image will also be evident in our countenance when we talk to others about Him!
LISTEN! Many passages of Scripture describe our relationship with God as that of sheep to a shepherd. Jesus said, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me" (John 10:27). Sheep by nature are not the most intelligent animalsif left to their own devices, they are always wandering off the path or falling into ditches. They do not have the sharp eye of the hawk, the sense of direction of the migrating gray whale, or the hound dog's ability to pick up a scent. The dominant trait which keeps sheep out of harm's way is their ability to recognize the voice of the shepherd and their willingness to follow him. Thus, if we are truly His sheep but cannot recognize His voice when the Great Shepherd is speaking to us, we are in trouble at the core of our relationship with Christ!
Training Our Heart To Listen Perhaps our heart has grown accustomed to listening to other voicesinternal or external, so that we have great difficulty recognizing the voice of the Shepherd. How do we train our heart to listen? First, listen to God, not to your own thoughts, feelings or desires. Introspection alone can be misleading apart from the work of the Holy Spirit who convicts us of sin, leads us into all truth, searches our hearts and intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words (Romans 8:26-28). His divine instrument of choice is the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17), which is sharper than any two-edged sword, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Hebrews 4:12). Second, we must get into the habit of listening for ourselves instead of for others. Third, we need to listen with our heart; not merely with our head. We listen, not just to understand but to obey and to follow Him. If we draw near to God with a preconceived agenda, becoming fixated on a specific question or problem for which we have come for answers, we run the risk of selective listening, and we may not hear Him when He speaks to us of other things. So we must come into His presence with an open heart. In our desire for intimacy with God, we are prone to romanticize the relationship by seeing Him as a benevolent Father who is interested in talking to us primarily for the sake of fellowship. But God did not appear to Moses at the burning bush just to have a fireside chat! When God speaks, He always has something specific in mind; what He wants is our heart response, not our opinion. Yes, intimacy is important in our relationship with God, but that intimacy is also expressed by the words of Jesus to His disciples, "You are My friends, if you do what I command you." (John 15:14). Do we truly delight to do His will? Or do we "reason in our hearts," as the Pharisees often did, whenever we hear something we don't like? Remember that no true understanding results without unconditional obedience (John 7:17). We are changed, not when God speaks, but when we obey what He has told us. If we repeatedly ignore the prompting of His Spirit by not acting immediately on what He has already revealed to us, our hearing will become impaired, and eventually our foolish heart will be darkened (Romans 1:21).
Sacrifice of Fools Our main concern when we come into the presence of God should be to listen: "Guard your steps as you go to the house of God, and draw near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools...Do not be hasty in word or impulsive in thought to bring a matter in the presence of God. For God is in heaven and you are on earth; therefore let your words be few" (Ecclesiastes 5:1-2). Why do we offer the sacrifice of fools? Because when we draw near to God, we do not listen; we're too busy telling God what we want to do for Him and what we want Him to do for us! The words reverberating in our ears are merely self-talk. Thus, we cannot hear His voice. Perhaps the sacrifices we bring, like Cain's, are unacceptable to God because they are sacrifices of our own making. We offer our old self, which is of no value to Him. Self invariably gets in the way of what God wants to do, and death is the only permanent solution that will free us to follow Jesus (John 12:24-26), so that we can serve in newness of the Spirit (Romans 7:6). Then, we can present our bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is (our) spiritual service of worship (Romans 12:1). When God calls, we need to respond promptly with child-like purity and faith, as Samuel did: "Speak Lord, for Thy servant is listening" (I Samuel 3:11). Then we will recognize that He is indeed speaking to us and what it is that He is saying, even in the dark of night. n The above article is a compilation of the June, August and October 1995 newsletter articles.
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