KneEmail - a devotional by Mike Benson associated with Forthright Magazine
Control
LUKE TELLS US that this man appeared to be seriously deranged...
He wore no clothes, lived in a cemetery, and frequently broke the ropes and chains that were used to subdue him. His was a hopeless case, it appeared. But then Jesus entered his life. Jesus immediately saw the problem and commanded the demons that possessed this man to depart. Shortly after the encounter, the townspeople "found the man from whom the demons had departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind" ( Luke 8:35). When Satan was forced from this man's control center, order and sanity returned.
We're not subject to spiritual hijacking by demons, as the people of Jesus' day were. Jesus has placed greater limits on the powers of the dark world. But it's still possible for us to willingly relinquish control of our lives to Satan. That was the danger against which Solomon warned. When we fail to keep our hearts with all diligence, bad results inevitably follow.
Just how serious is this matter of keeping our hearts under God's control? On another occasion, Jesus spoke about the directions a heart-out-of-control may take: "But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnesses, blasphemies" ( Matthew 15:18,19). When a person's mind isn't ruled by God, expect things to take a downward turn. This all explains why God doesn't only seek behavior modification. For us, that's about all we can achieve with one another. We can force a person to serve us, but we can't make them love us. God, however, goes for the heart. He doesn't stop with getting us to obey, but He seeks our total allegiance.
KneEmail: "Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life" (Prov. 4:23).
The New International Version says that the heart "is the wellspring of life". The point is clear: What we ultimately do and become begins with decisions that are made in the heart (Tim Hall).