S8 Ep. 2 / The Heart of the Problem is the Problem of the Heart

⁠>> Click HERE to get free visuals, handouts and discussion questions for Conversational Counseling sent straight to your email! <<⁠ Just as our physical hearts are vital for our lives, our biblical heart is the center for our spiritual life. Our heart is our inner self, the root of our tree. It affects our thinking, our feelings and desires, and our actions. Our heart, just like our world, is infected by sin, and sin often corrupts the good desires God gave us for pleasure and enjoyment.  If the heart is the root, the influences in our lives are the soil. Our broken earth, body, and relationships put pressure on our hearts. These influences don’t make us sin, but the pressure of these painful influences can wear us down. When we encounter sin in our life or in another’s life, we’re often quick to judge the sin and attempt to eradicate this sin from the heart. But focusing on the sin alone doesn’t lead to healing. The influences in our lives shape us and our responses. A painful or manipulative relationship in the past can affect how we respond to situations in the present, and the continuous physical pain from illness or injury can steal our sleep and our joy. As we inhabit the now and the not yet, the sin of others, the sin in our hearts, and the sin in our earth tempts us to continue a cycle of sin.  As we’re assailed on many sides and tempted to sin, how can we resist? God gives us the opportunity to behold Him as He transforms our hearts. When we behold Him, we are moving beyond head knowledge. We know God is good, kind, and faithful, but as we behold Him and as we see our Father display His character in our lives, our head knowledge becomes heart knowledge. And yet, beholding God isn’t a simple task. Busyness, burdens of sin and suffering, stressful relationships, legalism, and so much more can draw our hearts away from beholding God. When we strive to behold Him, we are daily choosing to turn our hearts to God, even as the brokenness of our story tempts us to look away.  Resources: The Dynamic Heart in Daily Life: Connecting Christ to Human Experience by Jeremy Pierre “Beholding the Love of God” by Timothy Keller “Don’t Get Too Familiar with the Bible” by Peter Krol “Behold (Be Held)” by As Isaac Season 8 of Conversational Counseling on “The Sacred Struggle: Sin, Responsibility and The Journey to Transformation.” To sign up for free visuals and discussion questions for this season click ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Our theme music is by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠As Isaac⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. This podcast is made possible by engineer and producer ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Shane Selby⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, executive producer ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Meleah Smith⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠generous donors⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Known Ministries⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ is ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Alex Kocher⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and Brenda Payne. 

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