Heart Work - A.W. Pink

“God is not the author of confusion” (1Co 14:33). 

No, the devil causes that, and he has succeeded in creating much in the thinking of many by confounding the “heart” with the “nature.” People say, “I was born with an evil heart, and I cannot help it.” It would be more correct to say, “I was born with an evil nature, which I am responsible to subdue.” The Christian needs clearly to recognize that in addition to his two “natures”—the flesh and the spirit—he has a heart which God requires him to “keep.” 

(...)  I cannot change or better my “nature,” but I may and must my “heart.” For example, “nature” is slothful and loves ease, but the Christian is to redeem the time and be zealous of good works. Nature hates the thought of death, but the Christian should bring his heart to desire to depart and be with Christ. 

The popular religion of the day is either a head or a hand one. That is to say, the labouring to acquire a larger and fuller intellectual group of the things of God or a constant round of activities called, “Service for the Lord.” But the heart is neglected! Thousands are reading, studying, taking “Bible courses,” but for all the spiritual benefits their souls derive, they might as well be engaged in breaking stones.

(...)” How subtle the devil is! Under the guise of promoting growth in “the knowledge of the Lord,” he gets people to attend a ceaseless round of meetings, or to read an almost endless number of religious periodicals and books. Or under the pretense of “honouring the Lord,” by all this so-called “service,” he induces the one or the other to neglect the great task which God has set before us—“Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Pro 4:23).

Ah, it is far easier to speak to others than it is constantly to use and improve all holy means and duties to preserve the soul from sin, and maintain it in sweet and free communion with God. It is far easier to spend an hour reading a sensational article upon “the signs of the times,” than it is to spend an hour in agonizing before God for purifying and rectifying grace! 

This work of keeping the heart is of supreme importance. The total disregard of it means that we are mere formalists. “My son, give me thine heart” (Pro 23:26). Until that be done, God will accept nothing from us. The prayers and praises of our lips, the labour of our hands, yea, and a correct outward walk, are things of no value in His sight while the heart be estranged from Him. As the inspired apostle declared, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge: and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing: And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth nothing” (1Co 13:1-3). If the heart be not right with God, we cannot worship Him, though we may go through the form of it. 

Watch diligently, then, your love for Him. God cannot be imposed upon, and he who takes no care to order his heart aright before Him is a hypocrite. “And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness. And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument” (Eze 33:31-32). Here are a company of formal hypocrites, as is evident from the words, “as my people”—like them, but not of them. And what constituted them impostors? Their outside was very fair—high professions, reverent postures, much seeming delight in the means of grace. Ah, but their hearts were not set on God, but were commanded by their lusts, went after covetousness. But lest a real Christian should infer from the above that He is a hypocrite too, because many times his heart wanders, and he finds—strive all he may—that he cannot keep his mind stayed upon God when praying, reading His Word, or engaged in public worship, to him we answer that the objection carries its own refutation. You say, “Strive all I may.” Ah, if you have, then the blessing of the upright is yours, even though God sees well to exercise you over the affliction of a wandering mind. There remains still much in the understanding and affections to humble you, but if you are exercised over them, strive against them, and sorrow over your very imperfect success, then that is quite enough to clear you of the charge of reigning hypocrisy. 

The keeping of the heart is supremely important because, “out of it are the issues of life” (Pro 4:23). It is the source and fountain of all vital actions and operations. The heart is the warehouse, the hand and tongue are but the shops. What is in these comes from thence—the heart contrives and the members execute. It is in the heart that the principles of the spiritual life are formed, “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil” (Luk 6:45). 

Then, let us diligently see to it that the heart be well stored with pious instruction, seeking to increase in grateful love, reverential fear, hatred of sin, and benevolence in all its exercises, that from within these holy springs may flow and fructify our whole conduct and conversation. This work of keeping the heart is the hardest of all. “To shuffle over religious duties with a loose and heedless spirit will cost no great pains, but to set thyself before the Lord, and tie up thy loose and vain thoughts to a constant and serious attendance upon Him—this will cost something! To attain a facility and dexterity of language in prayer, and put thy meaning into apt and decent expressions, is easy. But to get thy heart broken for sin whilst thou art confessing it, be melted with free grace, whilst thou art blessing God for it, be really ashamed and humbled through the apprehensions of God’s infinite holiness, and to keep thy heart in this frame, not only in, but after duty, will surely cost thee some groans and travailing pain of soul. To repress the outward acts of sin, and compose the external acts of thy life in a laudable and comely manner, is no great matter—even carnal persons by the force of common principles can do this. But to kill the root of corruption within, to set and keep up a holy government over thy thoughts, to have all things lie straight and orderly in the heart, this is not easy” (John Flavel, 1630-1691). 

Ah, dear reader, it is far, far easier to speak in the open air than to uproot pride from your soul. It calls for much less toil to go out and distribute tracts than it does to cast out of your mind unholy thoughts. One can speak to the unsaved much more readily than he can deny self, take up his cross daily, and follow Christ in the path of obedience. And one can teach a class in the Sunday school with far less trouble than he can teach himself how to strengthen his own spiritual graces. To keep the heart with all diligence calls for frequent examination of its frames and dispositions, the observing of its attitude towards God, and the prevailing directions of its affections, and that is something which no empty professor can be brought to do! Give liberally to religious enterprises he may, but give himself unto the searching, purifying and keeping of his heart, he will not. 

 This work of keeping the heart is a constant one. “The keeping of the heart is such a work as is never done till life be done. This labour and our life end together. (...) There is not time or condition in the life of a Christian which will suffer an intermission of this work. It is in the keeping watch over our hearts, as it was in the keeping up of Moses’ hands, while Israel and Amalek were fighting below (Exo 17:12). No sooner do Moses’ hands grow heavy and sink down, but Amalek prevails. You know it cost David and Peter many a sad day and night for intermitting the watch over their own hearts but a few minutes” (J. Flavel). 

Having sought to show that the keeping of the heart is the great work assigned the Christian, in which the very soul and life of true religion consists, and without the performance of which all other duties are unacceptable to God, let us now point out some of the corollaries and consequences which necessarily follow from this fact. 

       1. The labours which many have taken in religion are lost. Many great services have been performed, many wonderful works wrought by men, which have been utterly rejected by God, and shall receive no recognition in the day of rewards. Why? Because they took no pains to keep their hearts with God in those duties. This is the fatal rock upon which thousands of vain professors have wrecked to their eternal undoing—they were diligent about the externals of religion, but regardless of their hearts. How many hours have professors spent in hearing, reading, conferring, and praying, and yet, as to the supreme task God has assigned, have done nothing. Tell me, vain professor, when did you shed tears for the coldness, deadness, and worldliness of your heart? When did you spend five minutes in a serious effort to keep, purge, improve it? Think you that such an easy religion can save you? If so, we must inverse the words of Christ and say, “Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth unto life, and many there be that go in thereat.” 

         2. If the keeping of the heart be the great work of the Christian, then how few real Christians are there in the world. If every one who has learned the dialect of Christianity and can talk like a Christian, if every one who has natural gifts and abilities and who is helped by the common assisting presence of the Spirit to pray and teach like a Christian, if all who associate themselves with the people of God, contribute of their means to His cause, take delight in public ordinances, and pass as Christians were real ones, then the number of the saints would be considerable. But, alas, to what a little flock do they shrink when measured by this rule. How few make conscience of keeping their hearts, watching their thoughts, judging their motives. Ah, there is no human applause to induce men to engage in this difficult work, and were hypocrites to do so, they would quickly discover what they do not care to know. This heart work is left in the hands of a few hidden ones. Reader, are you one of them? 

       3. Unless real Christians spend more time and pains about their hearts than they have done, they are never likely to grow in grace, be of much use to God, or be possessors of much comfort in this world. You say, “But my heart seems so listless and dead.” Do you wonder at it, when you keep it not in daily communion with Him who is the fountain of life? If your body had received no more concern and attention than your soul, what state would it now be in? Oh, my brother or sister, has not your zeal run in the wrong channels? God may be enjoyed even in the midst of earthly employments, “Enoch walked with God, and begat sons and daughters” (Gen 5:19-24)—he did not retire into a monastery, nor is there any need for you to do so. 

      4. It is high time the Christian reader set to this heart work in real earnest. Do not you lament, “They made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept” (Song 1:6)? Then away with fruitless controversies and idle questions! Away with empty names and vain shows! Away with harsh censuring of others—turn upon yourself. You have been a stranger long enough to this work. You have trifled about the borders of religion too long. The world has deterred you from this vitally necessary work too long. Will you now resolve to look better after your heart? Haste you to your closet. 

'Heart Work' by A.W. Pink in Studies in the Scriptures.

Photo credit: T.F.R