Out of your heart come evil thoughts, murder, unfaithfulness, offensive deeds, stealing, telling lies, and insulting others. These are what make you unclean. Matthew 15:20

Out of the heart… One of the reasons that Christians have so much difficulty being content is that we focus on behavior management instead of heart surrender. And since we fail to get our behavior where we want it to be, we feel defeated, rather than contented.

We think if we can just get our behavior in line with the Bible, we’ll be holy. But holiness is a matter of the heart and if we want our behavior to exemplify Christ, our hearts must exemplify Christ first and foremost. How often we focus on terms like “integrity” (acting out certain behaviors) and good deeds, instead of purity of heart.

Yet the Holy Spirit has placed the desire in each believer to live a holy life… one that glorifies God and displays His love. Our desire to be content will never be really fulfilled without becoming more like the men and women God wants for us to be.

As we discussed in the past, the way in which we grow in holiness is called “sanctification.” It is the result of God’s powerful, transforming grace working within us.

Part of the Holy Spirit’s sanctifying work in us is to produce fruit in us. (One of the Fruit of the Holy Spirit’s work is joy, which make us contented people). The work of the Holy Spirit in us can be measured in us in terms of “fruit” – that is, how the fruit of the Spirit is being displayed in us. But the fruit comes from the Holy Spirit and it exists first in our hearts, and then can be seen in our behavior.

Jesus told His followers, “Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” Luke 6:44,45

No wonder the psalmist pleaded, “Create in me a clean heart, O God!” He knew that his life would be a trash pile as long as his heart was not cleansed by God.

Next time we will talk about another aspect of a clean heart: the tongue.