Don't Let Yourself Rust!

  Is it easier to go down hill or up hill?  After we think about it for a short time, we naturally say that it is easier for a person to go down hill than it is for the same person to go up hill.  It requires a lot less effort and it seems more natural.  To go up hill requires one to put forth more strength and determination.  The same is true for most things in the world.  Any object that lays around unattended will so begin to fall apart.    We have a house near us where no one has lived for over a year. The paint began to peel, grass was growing everywhere and the home began to look terrible.  Finally, a man came in to repair the house and now it is beginning to look nice again.  When things are not looked after, they just slowly fade away, piece by piece.     A piece of iron left on the ground will soon begin to decay through rust.  It is a natural process.  Things left to themselves begin to deteriorate.  They don't get better.  It is a natural law that things left to themselves begin to decay.  The human being is in the same state.  The Bible says that we have some 70 odd years for our lives, some more, some less.  We are all in a state of decay.  But, even the spiritual realm of the human being is in a problem.  It is due to the heart of man.  Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"  

     While some people think that they are good and that God will weigh their good works versus their really bad deeds and find them acceptable for heaven, this is not the case.  God needs to have a person free from sin in order to enter heaven.  The natural heart, as we see in the above verse, is naturally wicked and deceitful.  The tendency for our hearts is to go more towards that which is wrong than that which is right.  We don't do naturally those things that would reflect righteousness.  Rather, we do those things which are deceitful and then try to cover them up so that we might appear to do things that are right.  So, watch out for your own heart.  When it is in conflict with the Word of God, make sure you choose the Word of God rather than the inclination of your heart.  Praise God that He is tending to us on a moment by moment basis and not letting us rust in a field.