Adversity reveals your beliefs

A. Understanding the source of your strife.

1. The subject of this verse is your heart.

Matthew 9:4 NASB95

And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, “Why are you thinking evil in your hearts?

Proverbs 23:7 (NASB95)

For as he thinks within himself, so he is...

2 Corinthians 9:7 NASB95

Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

John 16:22 NASB95

“Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.

1 John 3:21 NASB95

Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God;

Proverbs 27:19 NASB95

As in water face reflects face, So the heart of man reflects man.

Ezekiel 36:26 NASB95

“Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

Ezekiel 36:31 NASB95

“Then you will remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and your abominations.

1 John 1:5–6 NASB95

This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;

3. Your heart is the hiding place for your treasure.

In our minds we do not reason and argue for the treasure of our hearts. We reason and argue from the treasure of our hearts.

4. The command is to watch over your heart.

Jeremiah 17:9 NASB95

“The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?

5. The reason you're to watch over your heart with all diligence is because from it flow the springs of life.

Matthew 15:18–19 NASB95

“But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.

Matthew 12:34–35 NASB95

“You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. “The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil.

B. Practicing the solution of your Savior.

John 15:4 NASB95

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.

1. Let the Word of Christ richly dwell within you.

Colossians 3:16 NASB95

Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

2 Peter 1:3 NASB95

seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.

James 1:22 NASB95

But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.

2. Put to death the deeds of the flesh.

Romans 8:12–13 NASB95

So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

1 John 1:9 NASB95

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1 Corinthians 15:33 NASB95

Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.”

C. You need the Holy Spirit.

(1) What am I wanting that I'm not getting?

(2) What are you getting that you’re not wanting?