What’s stored in your heart?

So, here’s something I dislike. I was going to use the word hate here but I think that is a bit extreme :D  

 HOARDING. I don’t like Hoarding stuff. 

 The thought of having storage filled with boxes upon boxes of things I don’t need doesn’t appeal to me….AT ALL. My theory is, that if you aren’t actively using it, give it to someone who will and create space for something more useful and meaningful. 

 Whilst studying the book of Luke, I came across chapter 6 verse 45 which reads: 

 A good man brings good things out of the good STORED up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of…...Phew!! It was a lot! 

 So how can I tell what is stored in my heart? 

By looking at the kind of fruit I am producing in my life. 

If my heart is stored with bitterness for example, my life will show this in general. 

If my heart is stored with love and forgiveness, my life will reflect this too. 

 What strikes out to me further is the word “STORED”. This reminds me that just like my hoarding story above, I get to decide what I choose to STORE in my heart and what I choose to let go of. 

I get to DECIDE. 

I get to CHOOSE. 

 If I want the outcome of my life to be good, I must store what is good. If I want the outcome of my life to be bad, store evil. 

 Another way of looking at it is like this, If I’m not happy with the fruits or outcome of my life, a good place to start checking is MY HEART and what its full of. 

 Realistically though, I feel like Life is full of caveats and nuances and we all have in the storage of our hearts some good and evil, good habits and bad ones, positive and negative mindsets.  

 My encouragement to you however is that with the help of the Holy Spirit, we consistently do a heart check to clean out our hearts, letting go of things that are not serving us like the guilt, shame, bitterness, un forgiveness, envy, resentment, jealousy, pride and replacing them with things that will yield good fruits in our lives. 

 Luke 6: 43 No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognised by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers.