Hebrews 3:12
Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
When thinking of an evil heart, we likely do not think of what God considers an evil heart. We would think an evil heart would be someone like Adolph Hitler who had a heart to kill all the Jews, and he did have an evil heart. We would think an evil heart would be a heart like the infamous Jeffrey Dahmer, a serial killer that didn't just kill people, but ate their bodies. It is not hard to equate an evil heart with people like Bloody Mary, Joseph Stalin, Genghis Kahn, Nero, Saddam Hussein, and Osama bin Laden. All these people did horrible things to mankind.
However, God sets the bar for an evil heart to a different level. God says an evil heart is a heart of unbelief. It is interesting that God was not talking to the lost world when He talked about an evil heart, but He was talking to the brethren. In other words, it was the saved people that God was warning about having an evil heart of unbelief. Let me share some areas where God’s people need to guard against having an evil heart.
First, not tithing because you don't believe you can pay your bills reveals an evil heart. God promised that you could not give more than He will give back, and not trusting God to pay your tithe is a sign of an evil heart. God teaches in Luke 6:38, Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again. To doubt that God could give more than you have given shows the heart of the one who doesn't believe God is evil.
Second, not believing God’s Word is preserved in the King James Bible shows an evil heart. Unbelief is evil, and not believing that God is powerful enough to keep His Word to preserve every word for every generation only shows an evil heart. We either have God’s Word or we don’t. God either preserved His Word in the King James Bible, or He didn’t. To think that God could not preserve every word in the King James Bible and the inspiration of His Word shows the evil heart of the one who doesn't believe it.
Third, not believing God enough to live by faith shows an evil heart. God teaches in Hebrews 10:38, Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. Not to live by faith means you are living by sight, which means you are trusting someone other than God to get you through life. The life of faith is the greatest life one could live because it is a life that totally trusts God for every step. Not to trust God with any step of our lives is evil. Unbelief in God in any area of lives results from an evil heart.
My question: do you have an evil heart? What is so evil about not believing God in these areas? It is an evil heart because one day it will cause you to leave God for something else. You will always find those who do not live by faith in these areas will one day stop serving God. Oh, they may go to church every week, but going to church will be more to punch their religious clock to make them feel good instead of going to church to be exhorted or to exhort others. Faith in God is the only way you can please Him, and not to have faith in God only shows your heart has become evil.
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