Cultivate a Heart of Righteousness!Sample

The Bible tells us that we are to watch over, tend, guard, keep, and even nurture our hearts. Caring for our hearts should be one of our top priorities because from our hearts flow the springs of life according to God's Word. Our hearts are the very essence of who we are and the epicenter of our relationship with the Lord as well. If we are in Christ, He is in us, and He is the ruler and lover of our hearts.

Our hearts are the very core of who we are, what we think, what we feel, what we care about, and what we cherish. Our attitudes, priorities, and treasures flow from what we think, and what we think and feel and believe is the heart of who we are. Therefore, cultivating righteousness in our hearts is essential to true biblical discipleship. This reading plan will give a brief overview of the four key components of the "Cultivating Hearts of Righteousness" discipleship method and model. They are easy to remember because they all follow a gardening analogy, and they all start with the letter “P.”

PREPARE. PLANT. PRUNE. PRODUCE.

The first key component to cultivating a heart of righteousness is to PREPARE—preparing the soil of our heart. The natural and native condition of the soil of our hearts is not at all responsive to God or His Word. So if we are going to make any spiritual progress, something needs to change in our hearts. The soil of our hearts needs to be tilled and broken up and, therefore, transformed from being hard and unresponsive to soft and yielding. If the soil represents our heart and we are contemplating a change in that soil of our hearts, then what we are talking about in biblical terms is what the Bible refers to as repentance—a radical change in a person’s heart.

When God grants us repentance at salvation He makes us alive in Christ through Christ's death, burial, and resurrection! Christ takes our sin and gives us His righteousness! And we are given new hearts. Our stony hearts are transformed into soft moldable hearts—hearts empowered by His Spirit to enable us to walk in righteousness! Repentance begins at salvation, but it doesn’t end there. It is a lifelong process as well. What are some areas where you continue to need the soil of your heart transformed?