Hearts That Follow Our Hands

In a recent reading, I came across this sobering truth:

“Terrifying is the reality that inconsistent practice and belief has a reverse effect on what we believe. Often people will alter their beliefs to justify their practice. Thus, people involved in a church not centered on the Gospel in practice will likely drift from gospel dependency as well” (Creature of the Word).

If this quote didn’t send a slight shudder down deep, reread it. Keep reading it until you realize the dangerous truth.

Jesus supports this idea in the statement, “For where your treasure is (your practice) your heart will be also (your belief)” (Mat 6.21). Our convictions can result from our practices instead of our practices resulting from our convictions. In the case of Jesus’s command, that’s good. We are crafting our hearts by controlling our actions. But what about uncontrolled actions?

I’ve seen people hold dogmatically to a truth until they find a loved one violating it, and suddenly, their “truth” changes to something new. Their conviction changes based on practice.

Some I know engage in viewing porn and suddenly find themselves no longer “in love” with their wives. Their wives are the same beautiful women, but their hearts have changed based on their actions.

You can likely come up with many other saddening situations where this principle is true.

Let me share the one that I find most distressing for the church. Churches have quit sharing the Gospel. We’ve stopped practicing the basic command to share truth wherever we go and with whomever we meet. We’ve forgotten our Commission and how Great it is. We’ve neglected Jesus’s mission.

People who practice this neglect will admit they should spread God’s message. We have all heard the sermons. We have all sat in training classes for evangelism. We all know those who need the Gospel. Yet, day by day, we do nothing to share that message. We’ve become a people of timidity who are more worried about what relationships we will affect than the souls we might save.

The only logical reason for our lack of activity is that we don’t want to do it, no matter how important or necessary. Churches are shrinking and dying. The Kingdom is suffering. Those lacking God’s forgiveness are hurting and hopeless, yet we hold the truth and refuse to practice evangelism. Maybe a better way to word it is that we don’t care. We are apathetic. We have declined to mimic God’s mission, which means we also don’t mimic God’s heart. Instead of imitating God’s heart, we mock it with our apathy.

When we spend our time justifying our lack of evangelism instead of doing the work, it negatively affects us. We cannot honestly believe in the Gospel (that saves sinners) if we don’t do the work of sharing the message that saves sinners. Paul clearly states that the legitimate use of the Gospel is to share it with sinners (1 Tim 1.8-11). If we don’t, we have lost the purpose of the Gospel we supposedly love and obey.

Are we indeed Gospel-centered, God-obeying, Christ-following, truth-loving people if we have forgotten how to use the very truth that God entrusted to us as disciples? Or have we justified ourselves away from our purpose? Let’s get back to putting our hearts where our hands are, doubling down on the busy work of the Gospel. Let’s begin with teaching some soul the Way and, just maybe, our hearts will follow our practice.