Chapter 8, The Enemy Within (Pt 3)

If your flesh is a fisherman using the "pleasures" of sin to lure you in and hook you, the goal in fighting sin is not to get caught.

And, if temptation is directed at your heart and gains access to it through your mind, the way we achieve our goal (of not getting caught by sin) is by guarding our hearts (Prov 4:23). In other words, "we guard most closely what we most treasure" (96), and in this case we need to most treasure our hearts.

This is a novel concept for me who, until recently, allowed every destructive, heart-assaulting danger to have access to my heart in the things that I watched and listened to. Sadly, I'd guard my baseball cards, my coin collection, my books, my car, my computer and countless other trinkets while leaving my heart totally unprotected.

I guess I started buying into the talk of a culture that devalues the most valuable (the heart, the gospel, Jesus, etc.) and highly values the least valuable (money, looks, waist size, hairdo, titles), spiritually and eternally speaking.

By allowing my heart to be enticed by these dangerous "pleasures," I was giving it objects to latch onto, to believe are desirable and necessary for my fulfillment. Rather than "setting my mind on things above" I was setting it "on earthly things" (Col 3:2), which, over time, tore my heart from Christ and attached it to His enemies.

Practically speaking, we're to train our hearts to be latched on to Christ, His beauty, His work, His Cross, God, His glory, the gospel, truth, wisdom, love for others, etc. "Daydream about how much love [Jesus] showed you as he hung naked in your place." Get worked up by these things and "see if the baits and lures of the flesh don't grow ugly and repulsive" (97). They will because this guards your heart.

As you do this, you must also keep those affections for God warm. There are cool winds blown by the flesh that put the fire for these things out. Therefore, you must "constantly stir them up" (97). I try to do this when I read my Bible. When I'm finished reading I ask "How can what I just read make me happy in God? How should these things increase my joy in God?"

You do these things and sin feels cramped and claustrophobic inside you and you heart stays guarded.