11 Nov The View (Because What Gets Your Attention Gets You) Part 2
Last week we began talking about The View, Because What Gets Your Attention Gets You. This week, let’s continue…
Let’s break this biblical meal down into palatable bites:
6 Very Vivacious Viewpoints Verifying the Vitality of the View:
1.What I continually see, affects me (Matt. 12:33-35).
18 inches is the most significant distance in the universe! 18 inches I the most significant distance to all of mankind! 18 inches is the most significant distance in your life! 18 inches is the difference between success and failure, victory and defeat, healing and sickness, and heaven and hell! 18 inches or one and a half subway sandwiches…is the distance between your head and your heart! You can go to hell with Jesus in your head! With the Word of God in just your head, you could end up dead, but with the Word of God in your heart you can get a brand new start!
Let me explain. There are two primary ways in which the Word of God enters into our hearts:
1. The ears…faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Rom. 10:17)
2. The eyes
According to the scripture we shared earlier in Proverbs 4:20-23, the Word of God enters and is established in our hearts through our ears and our eyes! Again, Proverbs 4:23 says, “Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.”
The word “issues” there in the Hebrew language connotes “boundaries”. Therefore, out of our heart the boundaries of our life are formed…either good or bad boundaries that either keep the devil out or invite the devil in. Boundaries that either keep God out or invite God in! According to our aforementioned key verses, what continually goes into our ears and eyes, eventually becomes established in our hearts and flows out into our lives…good or bad!
The Lord Jesus gives us similar principles that can be found in Matthew 12:33-35: “Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit. O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.”
Please allow me to break these verses down into powerful principles:
- What continually goes into your ears and eyes
- Eventually becomes established in your heart.
- This will then eventually be released through your words
- Then actualized in your life!
Therefore, if we don’t like what is presently being actualized in our lives, then we must go back to the root and discover what is continually going into our ears and eyes! According to Jesus and Solomon (from Proverbs 4:20-23), what continually goes into our ears and eyes determines the treasure stored up in our hearts…either good or evil. Then out of that “treasure chest” we begin to speak and choose and act from whatever is in the treasure chest. This then begins to determine the quality of life we experience.
For example, I watch Christians who have a problem with cussing. If you do, it’s not a matter of just trying to change your words. It’s a matter of changing your treasure. If you’ll simply change what goes into your eyes and ears on a regular basis and change it to the Word of God, your “treasure” will change, then your words will change! You take the effort to put God’s Word in and it will work effortlessly!
That’s why it’s so important to meditate on God’s Word (see Psalm 1:1-3, Joshua 1:8). You see, memorization is for the head, but meditation is for the heart. We have a very dear friend in ministry who knew the promises of God in her head, but yet many years ago she was suicidal. It wasn’t until she began to hear, see and meditate on the promises of God that she became free!
II Corinthians 5:2 tells us very clearly to walk by faith, not by sight. Here Paul is not telling us not to look, but what to look at! Look at the Word above what you can see with your natural eyes! Walk by the Word of God instead of by your circumstances! In other words, look at what you are going to not at what you are going through!
If you look at II Corinthians 4:17-18, II Kings 6:1-17, Matthew 13:16 and Ephesians 1:18 you will clearly see it is important what we see! Therefore, it is so vital what you set before your eyes. Remember this…never gaze at what you don’t want in your future.
Most of the best professional golfers on the PGA tour will not watch a fellow competitor’s errant shot. They don’t want to repeat what their competitor just did…they don’t want that in their future. Job 31:1 tells us to make a “covenant with our eyes”. My 10-year old son and I adhere to this. Whenever we go walking in a mall, invariably there is a Victoria’s Secret store (Victoria has very few secrets). Most of the huge advertisements are totally inappropriate for a 12-year old boy (or a 52-year old pastor) to see. So on purpose we will both look the other way when we come in contact with “Victoria”. Why? Never gaze at what you don’t want in your future.
What you continually see affects your heart. What affects your heart will eventually affect your life. What gets your attention, gets you!
Next week we’ll continue our series.