December 12, 2018
Values become powerful when we internalize them in the heart. A value is internalized when it permeates all aspects of your life; when it operates to guide all thoughts, decisions, and behavior.
When the Psalmist said to God, “For you look deep within the mind and heart, O righteous God. God is my shield, saving those whose hearts are true and right” (Psalm 7:9b, 10 NLT). The book of Proverbs speaks of the importance of the heart, “Watch over your heart with all diligence. For from it flow the springs (actions) of life” (Proverbs 4:23). Scripture says, “For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His” (2 Chronicles 16:9).
The Lord, through the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah, says, “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds” (Jeremiah 17:9, 10). And Jeremiah quotes God, “I will put My law within them, and on their heart, I will write it” (Jeremiah 31:33b).
Jesus declared, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will also be” (Matthew 6:21). Values—those things most treasured—are stored in a sacred place in the heart. God speaks through the writer of Hebrews “I will put My laws into their minds, and I will write them upon their hearts” (Hebrews 8:10b). And, “I will put My laws upon their heart, and upon their mind, I will write them” (Hebrews 10:16).
When people experience spiritual transformation—salvation— God gives them The Holy Spirit. It is the job of the Spirit to continue the transformation experience by making them different on the inside.
The aim is to replace sinful, self-centered values with holy ones and to actualize their power in the believers’ life.
We need to understand that when we become saved, we receive all the Holy Spirit we will ever get and what remains is for the Holy Spirit to gain control of us. It is in this context we can see the two competing set of values that we are born with: self-values and godly values. It is as we yield to the Spirit and allow Him to control our lives that He can replace self-values with godly values.