Turning From Vs. Turning To

Hello and good day to you! Today we’re going to be talking about empty hearts.

“What do you mean, empty hearts?” you ask. Well, let’s take a look at Matthew 12:43-45.

When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, 

he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. 

Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out;

 and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. 

Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits 

more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: 

and the last state of that man is worse than the first. 

Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.

Whew! Quite a chunk there! But do you see what I mean about empty hearts? The man in this parable had an unclean spirit inside of him. Then the spirit left—we’re not told why. The man’s heart is empty. Clean and swept, ready for a new person/spirit to live in it. At this point, we can only wish that that man had accepted Jesus into his heart! If he had, then what happened next wouldn’t have happened.

You see, the unclean spirit that had left came back, looking for a home. And when he found it all empty and ready for him, he invited some friends of his over to stay! So the end for this man was worse than the beginning—he started out with one unclean spirit and ended up with eight!

How does this apply to us? Well, I think it teaches a principle that is very important. When we repent of our sins, our hearts are “cleaned out,” so to speak. But if we don’t replace our sin with something better—Jesus, for example—we will revert to our old ways. Habits are habits, and they’re hard to break! 

In the title of this post, I wrote turning from vs. turning to. What I mean by this is, if we turn from our sin, we have to have something to turn to in order to replace it! In that empty space, the sin is more than willing to come back.

And on our own, we can’t fight it hard enough. Now, if we’re already saved, we’ve gotten the big part taken care of. But we still have temptations and habits that want to push themselves back into our lives. We can never completely get rid of them without God, but by focusing on Jesus and living our salvation out in the world around us, it becomes easier to turn away from those temptations and toward God.

If we don’t, the end of that parable is a warning enough—as we give in to each temptation, it gets more and more of a grip on our hearts. It becomes harder to say no each time we give in. Prayer is a mighty defense against this!

You may have something in mind at this point—something that wants to draw you further from your savior. I encourage you—stay strong! In the moment of temptation, if you can, walk away from it. Especially if it’s something on the computer: surfing the internet, watching videos, etc., you can ALWAYS just turn the computer off and walk away. And pray.

I hope this encourages you! Do not lose hope—Jesus is with you and wants you to succeed! But keep in mind, you’ll only fully succeed with His help.

God bless,

~Janet