The Heart Game — KEVIN BENEJAM

The Heart Game

How is your heart? You might be asking how is my heart? Seriously bro? What about how is my career? How are my finances? How is my health?

Well my friend, what I have learned on this path with Jesus and studying the Bible is that all our problems and life flow through the heart. From the heart comes our motives, from the heart, comes our desires, from the heart, comes our actions. From the heart, as Jesus said come disease, anger, rage, malice, deceit. But also from the heart comes love, forgiveness, kindness, compassion, etc.

Proverbs 23:24

For above all else guard your heart for everything you do flows from it

If everything we do flows from the heart, it means we need to guard our heart, we need to protect it, Jesus said he will guard our hearts but we need to do our part too. We need to protect our eyes (what we see), our mouth (what we say), and our ears (what we hear).

As Jesus said “if the eyes are good then our body will be filled with light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness” Matthew 6:22

We need to guard our hearts and filter out the negative and unfruitful things that come into our hearts because these are seeds. We can’t entertain these seeds because they will grow roots in our lives. Many times it’s the entertainment we are entertaining, hello Netflix. To be honest these days I rarely watch anything, only sports, and youtube. It is very rare I will sit down to watch a 2-3 hour movie. This is why it is called entertainment, the definition of entertainment is to “keep someone in a frame of mind”. The point of these movies or shows is to have you feeling or thinking in a certain way and we know that the spirit of God is not in these shows, so what spirit is guiding it if it’s not a pure spirit? I always say “ If I have to question it, then it’s not good for me”. Nothing is static, it’s either up or down. Even though we say we are strong, remember we can’t trust ourselves too much, the flesh is weak. I have noticed that when we entertain content and company that isn’t necessarily bad for us but also isn’t necessarily good for us it will still lead us to make errors in our thoughts which lead to errors in our actions which lead to errors in our habits and then life. We can’t serve two worlds at once. We can’t worship the kingdom and also the world’s way. This is how people slowly drift away from living from the principles of the bible. We have to make sure every decision is done through the lens of Jesus. We can’t let a tree of lust, a tree of unforgiveness, a tree of anything that will hinder us, grow inside of us. We have to cut it out before it grows.

We also have to be careful what comes out of our hearts. So how do things come out of our hearts? Our words, thoughts, and action.

In Matthew 15, It even came to a point when everyone was asking Jesus what kind of food could they could eat, the Pharisees asked Jesus why won’t his disciples wash their hands before they eat because they are unclean and will eat unclean food. Mannnn that’s why I’m not Jesus I don’t know what I would have said to them.

Pharisees back then were this big religious Jewish sect that observed the law. So if someone didn’t observe the law perfectly they would be punished for it, kind of how some religious people are now. Instead of focusing on their walk, we focus on others, but that’s a different convo and I am definitely guilty of that as well.

But back to Jesus, Jesus said to them:

“What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭15:11‬ ‭NIV‬‬

That’s why we have to be careful of what we say and do because our actions are what defile us. Just because I have a negative thought does not mean I should act on it.

This is why it’s so important to be in a relationship with Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit. When the sanctification process starts your wants and desires start to become more of what God desires and not what you desired or desired before. Because most of the time as humans what we desired never really filled us anyway. So when we renew our mind and ask God to fill us with the Holy Spirit he will make our flesh dead to sin, to the point where if we try to commit the sin we will realize #1 either it won’t feel good or #2 we will be convicted by our spirit after we have committed the sin. This will force us to find more fulfilling actions and guide us to a more fulfilling life.

I have learned if we walk in love every single day, even though it’s a hard walk, it’s so worth it.

Let us not judge others as Jesus said

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For, in the same way, you judge, you will be judged, and the measure you use, it will be measured to you”

God said it’s time to use a new measuring tool! It’s not time to use not a cylinder, not a ruler but GRACE. We can rule judgment with a ruler only GRACE. Give people grace. Love them, see how God sees them.

When we live our lives with open hearts we will feel more love, peace, and blessings.

“But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person, but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.””

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭15:18-20‬ ‭NIV‬‬