The Heart of the Matter: It's a Matter of the Heart

I just got back from a trip to Washington, D.C. during Spring Break. While we were there, we visited a church that only ran around 80 people in attendance. The worship music was put on by fellow members of the congregation ranging from kids to elderly adults. The music wasn't that great, and the service flow was pretty blocky, but there was something there in that church that made those things unimportant. There was something that banished the reservation that accompanies many believers. Even my fellow students were getting into the worship more than usual. The people of that church were really dedicated to their worship. They sang, they worshiped. It wasn't a concert; it wasn't a show; it was an offering of praise to God, and they produced it from their hearts. It was a matter of the heart.

 It was odd to me. Normally when I hear so-called "amateur" music, it turns me off to the message they are trying to communicate, but this was different. I don't think they were concerned with playing the music correctly as they were concerned with praising God. I think they knew that they were in an environment that ought to be able to see past the off-beats and bad pitches to look at the heart of the matter - that they were offering everything they had to God in order to praise him. It was a matter of the heart.

I think there is a considerable lack of this in churches today. A lack of unreserved praise. A lack of fearlessness. A lack of boldness for the gospel. I think a lot of the time, Jesus is quietly removed from the minds of people and replaced with the beauty of the music and the prose of the sermon and the comfortableness of the service. I think many churches get so concerned with making their congregation happy and content that Christ is pushed out and no one notices. People are happily convicted of their sin once a week in service, and go on to live in sin the other 6 days of the week. I've caught myself singing worship songs on autopilot, not really saying the words, and just singing out of habit. Worship isn't about the words, though. It's a matter of the heart.  

A life in Christ was never meant to be solely Pharisaical. There needs to be something deeper than the outward signs of faith. A while ago, I was working with my family in our yard clearing out some tree branches. I remember working on a branch of one of the trees that hangs over our driveway. From the outside, it looked pretty healthy, but when I cut into it, I found a big colony of ants thriving on the rotten inside of the branch. Sadly, I think this picture defines a lot of Christians today. They put all their effort into appearing acceptable, but they are rotting from the inside out. Whether because of apathy, lukewarmness, or hopelessness, a lot of our fellow Christ-followers are secretly unhealthy. Their actions are roses, but their hearts are the thorns. It's a matter of the heart.

I think many of us need to take a good hard look at the way we're living life and really consider which parts of our lives we are willing to surrender to God, because a lot of us have been living our whole lives keeping a few percentage points "off-limits" to God. There is wholeness, beauty, and love offered in the promise of the New Covenant - but in order for us to reap these promises of God, we need to sow faith in Christ into our lives. It is a matter of our hearts.