Lesson 7 Aim for the Heart
Question 2
Yes, the heart determines our actions; indeed, it determines the whole course of our lives. We go after what we love, what we are passionate about, what we earnestly desire.
The heart is the seat of the emotions, desires, and passions. It directs our thoughts (not the other way around) so that our minds think about what our hearts love. Out of the heart come all the sinful actions Jesus mentioned in Mark 7:21-23. So we want to try to draw out the heart of our students, hear and understand from them what their motivations are, what their struggles are, what their heart is doing inside of them. So what does that mean for us who want to help those who are caught in sin traps? It means we must aim for the heart with our mentoring. Our entire focus needs to be on the hearts of our students, and our desire is that God would change their hearts.
Jesus told the Pharisees that they were merely hypocrites because of their focus on external behavior, leaving the heart completely untouched and unchanged:
Matthew 23:25-26 (NCV) "How terrible for you, teachers of the law and Pharisees! You are hypocrites! You wash the outside of your cups and dishes, but inside they are full of things you got by cheating others and by pleasing only yourselves. 26 Pharisees, you are blind! First make the inside of the cup clean, and then the outside of the cup can be truly clean. We know that if God changes people's hearts they will turn from their sin; after all, their desires will have also changed, their passions will be different as well. Those whose hearts are affected by God begin to love Jesus, to desire Him more and more, to want to learn how to walk with Him. Concurrently they begin to have a hatred for their previous sin. It begins to reek of the enemy to them, and they start distancing themselves from it.
Question 2. Think for a moment about all the changes God has made/is making in your heart, and specifically how those changes are related to the good news of the cross. Please share those changes briefly:
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