EVIDENCE OF A CHANGED HEART

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Genesis 44:33-34
“So please, my Lord, let me stay here as a slave instead of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers.
For how can I return to my father if the boy is not with me? I couldn’t bear to see the anguish this would cause my father!”

Definitely a different mindset from what they had when they wronged their brother Joseph. They never at that time thought of what great pain they would bring their father. It must have taken years to heal.

Joseph had to prove them, to be sure they had truly changed.

How many believers are believers in fact and deed and not just in words. For Jesus said:

Matthew 7:21
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

For it easy to claim, however, it is another thing to prove. For many claim that they love the Lord, however when their lives are examined we see that the love only ends at the claim but cannot be proved.

1 John 3:18
My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.

Our very actions are the evidences of what we claim. If our heart is changed our utterances, actions and inactions change also.

1 John 2:4-6
If someone claims, “I know God,” but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth.
But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him.
Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.

Thus a changed heart in our context is that which is changed towards pleasing the Lord, it has left the way of the world and now walks in the way of the Lord.

Romans 12:2
Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

For our way may seem to be smart and vindictive at the beginning, however after a while (just as Joseph's brothers discovered) it only brings sorrow and pain.

Proverbs 16:25
There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof [are] the ways of death.

When we come to the Lord He gives us a new heart and His Spirit regenerates our spirit, we begin to please the Lord as we continually walk with Him.

Ezekiel 36:26-27
And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.
And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations.

The major steps in keeping that heart of flesh is by allowing the Spirit to guide us as we study the word, meditate therein, pray and worship. For spiritual things begat spiritual. Glory to God.

Dear Father grant us the grace to know You better day after day. May all we do bring you glory. May it come from that heart of Yours which you have given us. Glory to your Name.

He calls us blessed.

Love
@the watcher

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