Above All Else
June 15, 2009
Sounds important! Could it be that the Holy Spirit has given us insight to the holistic, sustainable healing of a man’s life? Could it be that heart is really the point in the vast world of addiction treatment and recovery?
“Above all else, guard your heart, for out of it proceed the issues of life.” (Proverbs 4:23)
While our culture offers many helpful treatments for the plethora of disorders and issues affecting the human heart, no human therapy has been or will ever be able to actually transform a heart into “something new.” Adjusted, yes. Modified, certainly. Healed, possibly. But, brand new?
Yet, that is the promise…indeed, the offer…of the “Heart Creator Himself.”
“I will give you a new heart, with new and right desires, and I will put a new spirit in you.”
O.K., fair enough. But how?
I’m afraid there is no way, humanly speaking. The transformation of a human heart – the soul of a man – is the exclusive “field of expertise” God has reserved for Himself, alone.
The Apostle Paul describes this amazing transformation to his spiritual children in Ephesus:
“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” – Ephesians 2:1-10
If that “heart/soul transformation” has taken place, the addict becomes the disciple, and a new life begins:
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! – 2 Corinthians 5:16-17.
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