pramsay posted on May 15, 2007 03:51 1604 views
Who’s In Charge? You Are!

You may never be the Commander-in-Chief of the military or the Chief Executive Officer of a corporation. You may never be left in charge of your employer’s passwords or the safety deposit box keys. The secret recipe that makes the restaurant where you work so famous may never be shared with you.

But get this: you have a responsibility that far outweighs any of the above! You’re in charge of your heart. You can’t delegate this task – it’s your’s for life! You either do a good job of it or a bad one. No one else is responsible for the condition of your heart.

Mary was very conscious of this responsibility. When the shepherds located the infant Christ and spoke of the visit from the angel, what did Mary do?

But Mary
treasured up all these things in her heart,
pondering them in her heart.
Luke 2:19

Mary was keeping in her heart every little tidbit – treasuring every insight, every new development related to Jesus. The thought is – she was keeping these things in her heart, as a result of a deliberate guarding. She would then mull them over in her mind, comparing all the pieces of information and connecting the dots.

When Jesus was twelve, Mary and Joseph got the scare of their life. They lost Jesus. After an intensive search they found him. He told them it was only right that He must be about His Father’s business. And then He went back to Nazareth and was submissive to them. Did Mary dismiss the incident and the words of Jesus? No, it says:

His mother
Treasured up all these things in her heart.
Luke 2:51

Once again, she kept thoroughly all these events and sayings in her heart.

God has given us the capacity to keep things and store things up in our hearts. We can keep things or we can let them go. If the matter’s of great interest to us, we’ll keep the information but if it’s not, we let it go. Some fill their hearts with politics and can talk for hours about politics. Others treasure up in their hearts all the hockey scores of all the players. Why? Because they love hockey. People ask: ‘How can you possibly keep all that information inside?’ If you’re not interested in politics or hockey it would be really hard.

But some who claim to be brain dead when it comes to remembering ‘stuff’ like that, can somehow find the capacity to remember every detail about the shortcomings of a Christian assembly or the faults of other believers. They would love for you to say: ‘tell me more’. They could talk for hours about this subject. The sordid, nitty-gritty details seem to be on the tip of their tongues. Why’s that? Because they’re keeping it in their heart.

Others treasure in their heart sexual images they have seen online, movies or in magazines. In secret they can recall them. Others treasure aspirations to be rich. They follow the stocks and are forever learning more and more about successful investment strategies.

Keep thy heart more than anything that is guarded;
for out of it are the issues of life.

(Proverbs 4:23 JND)

No one else is to blame for what I store in my heart. I’m in charge. Each day I am responsible for what I store in my heart. If I’ve been hurt or wronged, I can keep that information in my heart, grow bitter and resentful or I can choose to let it go and fill my heart instead with Christ and His Word.

Be sure to make daily deposits in the Bank of your Heart from the Word of God and from your meditations on Christ. Who’s in charge of your heart? You are.

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