Day 16 - Watching Our Hearts

The greatest three to each of us when it comes to temptation is our own heart. As Owen gives us three directions today on how to watch our hearts. As the prophet Jeremiah wrote, our hearts are deceitful and desperately sick. Trying to understand it is seemingly impossible. Yet, we must become well acquainted with our own hearts, watching ourselves to see how we so easily become the seed bed of temptation and the soil for sin.

In order to resist and repulse temptation, we have to know ourselves. We have to know our own heart.  We must become thoroughly acquainted with who we are at our very core. This means we have to know our own hearts. We must know "our own spirit, natural temperament, lusts and corruptions, and a natural, sinful, or spiritual weaknesses." Temperaments vary. Some are gentle. Some are rough. All are susceptible to temptation because of their very nature. Thus we must know where in our lives our corruption is strong and grace is weak. Awareness of our own specific areas vulnerability to temptation and sin are key to resisting temptation.

We might call this "situational awareness." That is, the awareness of the situations that makes us particularly vulnerable to temptation. We need to know ahead of time, to think ahead, what time of occasions and situations naturally draw out the worst of our corruption and lead us easily (if not immediately) into sin. While it is impossible to know every possible circumstance or occasion, there are those that we know will draw us into sin. We must avoid them. We must head the call of Proverbs 4:14-15: "¹⁴ Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of the evil. ¹⁵ Avoid it; do not go on it; turn away from it and pass on." (ESV)

Jesus described our hearts as a store house, a place where we can store things. (Matt 14:34-35) This being true, we can choose what we store in it: good things or bad things. We can store provisions in our heart like we do in our homes knowing that a storm or natural disaster is coming. When we know a natural disaster is coming, we do not just sitting idly by "hoping for the best." IF we are wise, we prepare for it by gathering provisions to face it. This is how we must think of our hearts and of temptation. We must prepare our hearts, put provisions in them to face the inevitable temptation that will come and be able to resist it.

The greatest preparation is to know the truths of the gospel and have them stored up in our hearts. Owen describes this so well:

Do you know your own heart? Do you give serious consideration to its weaknesses and your own sinful corruptions? We must know our own natural tendencies and temperament so that we can watch ourselves and know the temptations that we are most vulnerable to.

And what have you stored up in your heart? Is it things like bitterness, defensiveness, self-righteousness? Displace these with the provisions of the gospel. Store up in your heart the provisions given to you in the gospel so that your love of God and of Christ will compel you to resist temptation rather than be drawn into it.