Propensity = Tendency, Inclination, Predisposition
- The first mention of the fallen nature of our heart
- Genesis 8:21 And the LORD smelled a soothing aroma. Then the LORD said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.
God’s solution
- Ezekiel 36:26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
If our heart controls the “issues of life”—our thoughts, attitudes, aspirations, feelings, talk, and behavior—we can only conclude that the problems of our life are ultimately problems of the heart.
We don’t experience the abundant life of love, joy, and peace for which we were created because something is seriously amiss in our heart.
- Heartache
- Rhema
- Boarding school
- Achy Breaky Heart written in 1990 by Don Von Tress later recorded and made famous by Billy Ray Cyrus
Don’t tell my heart my achy breaky heart…
I just don’t think he’d understand
And if you tell my heart my achy breaky heart
He might blow up and kill this man
A heartache means deep sorrow or anguish.
- It is not relieved instantly nor is it cured by potions.
- It is not isolated to a body organ nor is it a chronic condition but something that affects the whole person at one time.
- Hence, it is often associated with brokenness in romantic relationships, but also of other, equally important sources of grief and anxiety.
Our Creator graciously does not leave us in the dark about our problem.
- In plain words and numerous examples of human life and experience in the Bible, He surgically identifies the fatal disorder of the human heart that is alienated from Him.
- He also tells us of the sound heart that he desires and is willing to create anew in us—the kind of heart that is the spring of true human life, the Artesian spring.
- Both hearts, the alienated heart and the sound heart that he desires, are described so we might understand the real problem of our life and its solution in a transformed heart.
- The alienated heart is a natural consequence of the fallen man, the condition of the Natural Heart According to God’s Word, but for those of us who are saved, being alienated from God is a choice that comes with disastrous consequences.
- Proverbs 18:1 A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire; He rages against all wise judgment.
The entrance of sin into the world through the disobedience of the first man and woman affected the entire human race
- Romans 5:12–19 12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—13 (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. 15 But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. 16 And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. 17 For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.) 18 Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. 19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.
- 1 Corinthians 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.
- We all came into this world estranged from God and consequently with a heart that suffers from serious irremediable problems. No one is exempt
- Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Evil
The first reference to the human heart in Scripture is negative. Speaking about the judgment of the flood, Scripture says this:
- Genesis 6:5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
The Lord not only saw the wicked (or “evil”)a behavior of humankind, he also saw its source
- a heart so dominated by sin that its “every” intention or inclination was “only evil continually.”
To describe something as evil is basically to say that is it something “harmful.”
- The term encompasses a wrong relation to God and all of the hurtful effects that result from this wrong relationship.
- The real character of evil is revealed in the light of its opposite—good—which in Scripture means that which makes something desirable.
- Genesis 1:21-22 So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. [22] And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”
- Genesis 1:27-28 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. [28] Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
God saw that it was systematic for abundant life—a life of shalom.
What is pleasant, delightful, right, and most importantly, beneficial, is good.
Evil is the contrary to all these good qualities of life.
- Genesis 3:14 So the LORD God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life.
It is unpleasant, bad, hurtful, and as such is associated with death.
Evil entails all kinds of external hurt and ugliness, but also various life-robbing mental states—troubled, downhearted, distressed, anger, and displeasure.
Thus Moses set before God’s people the choice of “life and prosperity [lit. the ‘good’]” and “death and adversity [lit. the ‘evil’].
- Deuteronomy 30:15 “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil,
And God pleaded, “Seek good and not evil that you may live”
- Amos 5:14 Seek good and not evil, That you may live; So the LORD God of hosts will be with you, As you have spoken.
- Revelation 22:3 There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him;
- Psalm 73:23-24 Nevertheless I am continually with You; You hold me by my right hand. You will guide me with Your counsel, And afterward receive me to glory.
- continually with You;
- You hold me by my right hand
- guide me with Your counsel
- afterward receive me to glory
- Psalm 86:11 (NIV) Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.