A Heart Check

Good morning! I've included a picture of the Baby Buddy babies at the bottom, so that you have something to look forward to after reading this. :)

My good friend, Em, and I have been looking at Romans together. We don't really have a plan; we just kinda read and chat about it.... which I love. This past week, I've been in Romans 6, and I've discovered I have a heart problem.

In Romans 6, Paul is reminding us that we are free from sin, not slaves to it anymore, and that now we are slaves to God. Now, the word "slave" is kinda hard to get past, I understand, but I think Paul's intent is to highlight the FREEDOM that we get to experience when we surrender to Christ. One of my favorite verses from this chapter is v.18, "You have been SET FREE from sin and have become slaves to righteousness."

It's not often in our world that SET FREE is associated with Christianity. In fact, I'm guessing that many people assume that following Christ is anything but freeing, with all of the "do this" and "don't do that's." But, when I look back on my past, I realize that SIN has a way of chaining us, a way of making us feel anything but FREE. Verse 21 says it best. "What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of?" Exactly. No benefit... just shame.... just wishing I could go back and change things.... just heart ache.... no benefit.... NO FREEDOM.

On the other hand, since I've given my life to Christ and begun to "offer the parts of my body to God as instruments of righteousness," instead of sin, I've experienced a great deal of freedom! Crazy! Who knew that SURRENDER = FREEDOM? Who knew?

So, here comes my heart check.... I was thinking through the "parts of my body" section of Romans 6 this morning.... my heart, my mind, my hands, my feet, my agenda, my home, my son, my relationships... all of those things. I realized this morning that I've still got a part of my heart that is enslaved to sin, even though I've been set free at the cross of Jesus FOREVER! So, it's not like it's God's fault that I've got this heart issue... He's already forgiven me! It's my CHOICE to keep this part of my heart unclean! Yuck! Not a fun reality check!

What's up with my heart, you ask? Well, as not fun as this is to admit, my sin is that of trying to impress people, trying to look good, sound good, be attractive to other people, all that people-pleasing junk. Yep, that's my heart issue right now. This all came to the surface when I started thinking about my class reunion that's coming up, and I couldn't help but think, "Oh, good... I don't have THAT many zits right now, I've got this cute new shirt I can wear, I've got a super-cute son to show off, I'm in a great marriage . .. " and la-di-da-di-da. Geesh. How embarrassing to admit.

So, all that to say, time to clean up my heart, O God. You already are willing; you've already forgiven me for this disgusting part of my heart, you're just kind enough to wait on me to surrender it to you. So, I surrender, Lord. Please replace this me-centeredness with you-centeredness, Jesus. And, instead of people looking at me and seeing me, I ask that people look at me and see YOU... after all, YOU ALONE are all-saving and all-satisfying. Not me.:)

Thanks for listening to me spill my guts! Love you all! Enjoy the cuties below!