Make a Way for Your Rescue

All the evil in the world and the heartache and devastation people have experienced has originated with the natural heart. Though many would like to think we are basically good, God told Jeremiah that all of us have been born with wicked and deceitful hearts (see Jeremiah 17:9). Many of us have deceived ourselves into believing we are okay. While environment, willpower, and education will cover up the flaws of our nature to a degree, these flaws will ultimately be manifested. With just the right kind of provocation, what is truly in the depths of our hearts will finally be revealed. Babies are very selfish; if they don’t get their way, they’ll make quite a fuss. Of course, we don’t fault them for their selfishness because we know they’re only babies. But this nature of selfishness is not eliminated simply because of growth and instruction. One time when I was a child, I took a quarter I had found in the kitchen cupboard. When my dad asked me if I had gotten that quarter from the cupboard, I told him no. A few years later, when I was playing baseball with other children, I swung my bat, and everyone figured I had missed for strike three. But I insisted my bat had ticked the ball. Again, I knew I had lied. When Jesus was growing up, He was noticeably different from other children. He did not tell lies or disobey instructions. The reason for my sometimes lying and Jesus never lying had nothing to do with our attentiveness and alertness to instructions from our parents or with our willpower to overcome. Quite simply, I lied because unlike Jesus, it was in my heart to lie. I was born with a corrupt and deceitful heart, the natural condition of everyone’s heart. In communicating with you through this book, since I don’t have the ability or tools, as a doctor would have, to listen to your heart, I can only make assumptions about its condition. The fact you are reading this book shows you have a concern about your nonphysical heart. As I often do on the prayer lines, I ask you to give your heart a close examination. The truths in this book are tools by which you can examine its true condition. Through this checkup, you will learn if your heart is in good condition, needs a tune-up, needs to be revived, or needs to be replaced with a brand-new one. Your self-diagnosis will show you whether the medicine of God’s Word is sufficient to prevent heart failure or if this medicine is needed to help you have a successful heart transplant. When you agree to test your heart, you may very well discover it is diseased and has the potential to disrupt or destroy your life. This discovery will give you the occasion to seek for a remedy, a prescription that will bring you healing. This remedy is Jesus and the scriptural truths that will lead you to Him.