Discipleship Blog - New Brothers Inc.

An Unguarded Heart

The idea that a leader whom we've known and loved should suddenly be exposed in a devastating scandal seems incomprehensible. Certainly leaders who have taught others could teach themselves. Is there not resident within all Christians biblical knowledge that would protect us from moral failure?

So what is it then that can worm into an individual's thought-life, burrow down into his heart, and then grow so compelling that a leader is willing to risk everything he's loved and attained for a fulfillment of the flesh? Is it just sin? Or is there something deeper, a lack of spiritual discernment that left the heart of that leader vulnerable to demonic manipulation? Could it be that, at least among some, their heart was unguarded to the exploitation of hell?

An Unparalleled Warfare
Please note that I am not blaming the devil for every sin we commit. The fact is, selfishness and self-indulgence, which produce sin, are basic instincts of our fallen nature. At the same time, let us also discern the unique warfare of our times. Our world has been flooded with hyper-sexuality, wantonness and excess. The "red-light district" has moved from the city and entered our homes via the Internet, movies and television. We deceive ourselves if we think we can accommodate an immoral imagination and it not contaminate how we act out our lives.

The Blessing Of Failure

It hurts when we fail. It hurts our pride, it hurts our progress, and it often hurts other people.

It’s also hard to get over, and that can lead to even more failure, because it starts feeding on itself and multiplying. “Well, I failed there, so what difference does it make if I fail here, too? Who’s going to care now?” If we crash and burn, we figure it must be what we deserve. Why fight the facts? We’re losers. We’re failures. Giving up altogether makes more and more sense with each fall, because we are so far behind now. We’ll never catch-up.

It’s is even worse when we think we have failed God, because we add guilt and shame to our pain. Then, like Adam and Eve before us, we try to hide.

We want to disappear. We don’t want to face our heavenly Father, and be confronted with what we’ve done. We want to move on and move away—as far away as possible.

Go Ahead And Ask

ask in faith I just want to encourage you to do one thing today: ask God.

Ask Him for anything and everything. Ask Him for whatever it is you desire or need. Ask Him for the thing you would never admit to wanting, but long for desperately in your heart. Just ask Him. Go ahead!

Honestly, I feel really strongly about this. I really believe we ask too little of God, and try too hard to make things happen for ourselves. I’m not opposed to us trying to make things happen for ourselves, and sometimes that’s the way to do it, even as we pray for the Lord’s help in our doing.

However, too often we just don’t think God cares about our problems. We don’t think we deserve His help.