Predicas.orgPredicas.org
Author
Mercedes López-Miranda
Summary: The theme of the message is the cleanliness of the heart. The heart is an entity in the Bible and is the center of the personality where all actions of the human being take place. Christ came to redeem our entire being, and our salvation begins when we open our hearts to the Lord. God is a specialist in heart surgery, and he knows everything about us. We need to put our trust in God's purposes for our lives instead of following what our hearts dictate. Colossians 3 provides a description of the relational behavior of a child of God, which we can use as a diagnostic test to discern our actions compared to what the word says.
The passage from Colossians 3:9-17 describes the qualities of a person who has been clothed with the new man, has an awareness of their identity in Christ, and has the qualities of the fruit of the spirit. Everything they do, they do for the Lord. The heart has strategic importance as it is the seat of the will, passions, motivations, and intellect. Satan attacks our hearts, but God continually speaks to our hearts. Sin is born from the heart, so every change or transformation must also come from the heart. One reason we may struggle to overcome bad attitudes and behaviors is due to immaturity or ignorance.
The reasons why it's hard to change our behavior in relationships include immaturity, justifying bad behavior, selfishness, and being creatures of habit. We also have messages written in our hearts from past hurts that can interfere with healthy relationships. However, we have the authority to decide what enters our hearts and can guard it against harmful emotions. It's important to pay attention to our heart and be in conversation with it and with God. When faced with difficult situations, it's helpful to put them on a mental shelf and revisit them later with prayer and a calmer mindset.
The speaker shares how to take care of our hearts by accepting responsibility for our emotions, being proactive, seeking help from trusted individuals, and daily prayer and renewal. They also remind us to trust in God and His promises for healing our broken hearts. The message is based on Colossians 3 and emphasizes the importance of love, forgiveness, and unity in our relationships. The speaker shares personal experiences and encourages listeners to prioritize heart hygiene and to have conversations with their own hearts. They offer a final blessing for listeners to internalize and apply in their lives.
In the name of the Lord, a prayer is made to declare that the listener is a new person who has stripped away their old ways and put on the new. They will guard their heart, renew themselves according to God's image, and live with mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. They will forgive and ask for forgiveness generously, and live in unity with others with the dress of love. The prayer asks for healing of relationships and for God to work in the listener's life. The prayer ends with asking for safe travels home and continued work in the listener's life.
(Audio is in Spanish)
So from then on, from the beginning of the Christian life, God has direct contact with the heart, and in fact even before, right? when we feel those pulls from God, that God calls us and sometimes we resist until finally one day we say yes and truly open our hearts. And it is when the Lord dwells in our hearts that we begin to be able to savor and experience the love of God. Before that we just heard about it, we heard about God's love, but once we truly say 'yes, come into my heart' then we begin to experience what God's love is. And sometimes we take time, I know because that was my process too, and I know that perhaps in many of you, where we began to love the Lord in a little strange way. We love him with our heads and even with our heads we say, I would even be willing to give my life for you, Lord, and I want to do this and that for you. However, it has not yet reached the level of the heart. And this process that we all go through, I believe it is a process, first we sometimes love the Lord, intellectually, and then, when we truly understand the love of God, that love becomes real and we love him from the heart. I know, when I accepted the Lord I recognized, my mind was one hundred percent focused, I believed. However, my heart was still not on a par with my intellect. And the Lord did a work so that I could finally fall in love with the Lord. And that is what God wants from each one of us, not only that we love him mentally, head over heels, intellectually, but that we are in love with him. There is a big difference, right? When you are in love you do everything, you see little birds flying where there are none, and you have butterflies in your heart, and you see everything more beautiful and the Lord wants us to have that kind of experience with him too, that we surrender our minds and our heart so that we are in love with it too. Because God is love. He loves each one of us. God paid a great price for us to be here, to have eternal salvation. We sometimes think that love was invented by others, but God is the inventor of love. It wasn't Hollywood with its movies, it wasn't Hallmark, with its little cards dripping with honey, right? It wasn't Valentine's either, nothing like that. It is God and the love of God is a love different from all other love. God's love is eternal and it is true. In God there is no love with emotionalism. It is a true love, one hundred percent real. And God is a specialist in heart surgery, as he created us, as he is the originator of love, he is a specialist in heart surgery. And notice that in David, in Psalm 51, verse 10, David says: "...create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me..." David knew that God could renew the heart. And the Lord also does heart transplants and I can prove it to you by Scripture as well. It says in Jeremiah, 36:26 ".... I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you and I will remove from your flesh the heart of stone and I will give you a heart of flesh..." So God, trust me, God not only changes the heart that you have, but sometimes he also takes out that heart, throws it away and puts a new heart, as he says of meat, a heart that truly beats and is tender. And another truth about the heart and about God is that God knows everything about you. If he created you, if he created your heart, he knows everything. Nothing scandalizes him, nothing worries him beyond his power, because he has the power to heal him. Nothing of that. He knows it and in fact in Jeremiah he says that the heart is the most deceitful thing there is, therefore, no matter how hard you try, you will not know what is in your heart. Doesn't that happen sometimes when you're surprised by the things you're feeling, by the things you've done? And they say, but where did that come from? And we think we know each other, but the truth, the heart can deceive us even ourselves. But that same verse says that although the heart is deceitful, it also asks who will know it? And the answer is: Jehovah, only Jehovah knows him, only he. Therefore we have to put our trust in what God says about our hearts and in God's purposes for our lives, instead of putting it in our own hearts. We have to change the focus that we have many times. Many times we let ourselves go too much for the heart and I have seen people like that. What the heart tells you, that's what they do. And what happens? In, as a very common expression, they spend all the time messing up, because there is no clear awareness of what God wants to do but rather what my heart dictates. And in this society that is seen continuously. We continually see them say, do what feels good to you, what feels good. What a ridiculous thing. How are we going to do what feels right? Perhaps a few of us would be in jail, we would have many more problems than we have. We can't do what feels right. We have to do what is right according to the word, right? So let's not be fooled by what the heart, where the heart leads us, but let's see what God wants us to do. In Colossians 3 there is a passage where the Apostle Paul makes a description of the relational behavior of a child of God, it is a very, very beautiful description. And I did it, we are not going to read it from the word directly, but rather I personalized it, instead of putting it as it is in the word I rewrote it with the same words, with the same content, but from the point of view of 'I ', from the pronoun 'I'. And what I want is that we all read it together and while we are reading it, we are going to take it as a diagnostic test, when you read the word, the word should help us to discern what God's purpose is and what I I'm doing compared to what the word says, right? That is what it is about, otherwise we are reading like the parrot. So what we're going to do, we're going to look at it as a diagnosis, as we read it, we're going to think about whether each of those things applies to me, as a person. So we started... so we're going to read it together, you more or less follow me so as not to be all, each one in their own tone. So we started. This is Colossians 3 from verse 9 to 17 and I hope it's there projected so read it with me. “I am a new man, I have stripped myself of the old man and its actions and I have put on the new one, which continues to renew itself according to the image of God who created me. I am chosen by God, holy and loved by him, I am clothed with endearing mercy, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, therefore I am tolerant with others, I ask forgiveness if someone has a complaint against me and I forgive when I have a complaint against another. I forgive the way Christ forgives me. Besides all these things I am also clothed with love and this allows me to live in unity with others and the peace of God rules my heart and I am thankful. The word of Christ dwells in abundance in me so that I can teach and exhort others in all wisdom and that is why I sing psalms and spiritual hymns to the Lord, which come from the grace that he has deposited in my heart. And whatever I do, whether in word or deed, I do it in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. I do everything from the heart and for the Lord. amen” That's Colossians 3. Okay. How did the suit fit? How did it turn out? Did it fit them? Was it a little wide? Was it too wide? Someone here says that it was too big for him. In a sense, to all of us in a certain way, he is a bit big for us, but that is a passage where he speaks to us..... notice that part is the spiritual relationship of this person with God and part is a consequence of spiritual relationships come the repercussions on interpersonal relationships. And we there, well, we see many, many details in that passage. We are not going to discuss it, but if you see, well, it is a person who has been clothed with the new man. It is a person who has an awareness of his identity in Christ. He has the qualities of the fruit of the spirit like meekness, humility, all those things. He asks for forgiveness, he has a grateful heart. It is full of peace. The word of God is not only something that he reads but is something that dwells in him. And so on like that, and everything he does, he does for the Lord. So these are all qualities that we need to live in peace and have healthy relationships with others. And all those things originate in the heart. You saw in the passage the word heart is mentioned several times because that is where everything originates. So when we read the word we'll see how that fits me. Am I dressed in what that word says that I have to dress? Does that word describe me? How do you describe me? There are things I'm doing, other things I'm not doing. Is this what I practice in my life? Does my home look like this description that I am seeing there? In other words, we have to ask all these things and answer them truthfully. It would be ideal for us to live what that word says. If that were the case, we would all have wonderful homes, wonderful work environments, wonderful churches, everything would be fine. So let's practice what that word says. In that Scripture are the elements that all of us need to live harmonious lives. And notice that the person who can achieve this is not a gifted or extraordinary person, he is a person like you and me, very ordinary, simply who has taken the word of God seriously and has truly prayed and worked so that your heart is clean. In other words, let's not read these things and think, 'ah, if they knew the problems I have at home they would know that's not possible. Ah, I am a certain way and I cannot act like that.’ That is a lie. Each one of us can aspire to that, not by our own strength, our own abilities, but by what God has deposited in us by the power of God. So don't think, I can't, but think the opposite: I can, and that's the way I'm going to live and what has characterized the person in this passage is that he has put off the old man. The nature contaminated with sin, with all its problems, has rejected it and, on the contrary, it has not only rejected that and remained empty, that is, we first have to empty ourselves, but we cannot remain empty, we then have to fill ourselves with the God's identity. What does God say about me? Well, that's what I am. If God says that I am a new man, that I can do all these things, yes I can, and it should be the goal of each one of us, even if it is difficult to fulfill all that purpose of God for my life. And that reminds me of a story that I heard a while ago from the lips of several times I heard that Toñita told this story, it was a story that took place in the Dominican Republic. She was an elderly lady who visited a church for the first time with a friend who had been insisting for years, 'come on, let's go to church, let's go to church, you'll like it', and she always said no. Until finally my friend's insistence was so great that she said I'm going to go to church. Well, the church, an old lady, a very dignified married lady, went to church and liked everything: she liked the praise, even the announcements, she liked them. I was very happy with the sermon but it was one of these very fiery pastors, Pentecostals and the Lord, we know that we are Pentecostals, that's why I can say it, and with the most fiery part of the sermon, the pastor says 'Today no one is leaving from here, until each one has put off his old man.' And upon hearing this, the lady angrily gets up, says 'ah, but hey, I do whatever you want but I won't let my old man, no'. And the lady then got up and went home and to this day she is with her old man, she is with the old man. So if you have one of those old ones, don't leave it. That did not leave him, but he did leave the old man. Exactly, the one who is at home, continue with him. Get rid of the one who is within you in the heart. There is a similarity between the natural heart and the spiritual heart. We know that the heart organ is essential for life, right? For us to function healthily the heart has to be healthy. And on the contrary, a heart that is sick, a sick heart organ will affect the whole body and we will not be able to feel well. And it also happens in the spiritual. If your heart is healthy, if your spirit heart, according to the Bible, is healthy, it is free of impurities, you will be able to enter into battle with everything that wants to contaminate your heart and you will win. And on the contrary, if your heart is sick you will contaminate the rest of your being and you will also contaminate others. So it is very important that we take care of our hearts. And what I want is to talk to you about some principles about the heart, about what the word says about the relationship with this entity that we call the heart. The first thing is that the heart has strategic importance. Remember that we said at the beginning that the heart is the seat of the will, of the passions, of the motivations, of the intellect. In the heart is the entire center of the personality. Therefore, if that is so important, it has strategic importance. And it is important that we ask ourselves then, who is the owner of my heart? Because, what happens that the one who owns the heart is the owner of everything else. So who is the owner of your heart. We know that from the beginning, from the beginning of creation Satan has known this. Satan goes straight to the heart and from the Garden of Eden we see how he went straight to Eve's heart first, and what did he plant in Eve's heart? It sowed doubt about the character of God, about what God said was true. He sowed doubt and as a consequence of that doubt came disobedience to sin and we know that also then, Adam and Eve who lived in a privileged, protected place, and had a very beautiful relationship, a harmonious relationship, for now that ceases to be and they begin to enter all kinds of complications in his life. So Satan goes right to the heart. I mean, we have to contend with him all the time. You, right, what happens to you, sometimes you have a difficult situation, don't you hear? If you look at the dolls that appear, I don't know if they still appear, but when I was little the little angel appeared here and the little devil here, a little drawing of the little angel and the little devil here, and the little angel whispered, 'look what you have to do good', and the little devil said 'No, what you have to do is this other'. Well, that sounds funny, but a lot of times in reality that's what happens. We have these things, Satan whispering in our ears telling us what to do that is obviously going to go against God's plan. So, if this is real, we have to be aware of it, that he wants to hurt us, that he wants to contaminate our hearts. And we have to do something to fight him. I think so, that annoys me. I believe that it is time that we each say to Satan in his life, 'Enough is enough. Don't even talk to me because I'm not going to listen to you, the owner of my heart is Jesus and not yours. You have no art and no part in my life.' You know what? That is the best spiritual warfare that we can do. If we were to live Colossians 3 in our lives, that is the most exquisite spiritual warfare, the most that goes against Satan's purpose. So let's live what the Scripture says, let's live in peace. Let's control our emotions. Let's clean our hearts. And likewise, just as Satan attacks our hearts, so God continually speaks to our hearts. He knows that in order for us to live full lives, he has to own our hearts. We cannot have a divided heart. We cannot have two owners. We can have only one and that is the Lord Jesus. Nobody, nobody else. And that is why in Matthew 22:37 the Lord says “.. you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind...”
He knows that this is the only way we can live full lives, is when we love God with all our hearts. We are privileged to have a God who is not distant. Our God is personal, he gets involved in our life, he takes care of the big things in our life and the smallest details of our life as well. He is our beloved. We sang a little while ago, I don't remember the song, but we sang a song about how I am his lover and he is my lover too. It is a personal relationship: God wants to have intimate fellowship with us. He is not a God far away, he is a God here now. It is the one next to us, it is like the dildo that is here right next to us, doing for us all the time. That is our God. And if that is our God, why not entrust our hearts to him every day and recognize that our hearts have strategic importance, therefore we have to take care of them. And since sin is born from the heart, every change or transformation must also come from the heart, right? So why is it so hard to overcome bad attitudes, prejudice, hot temper, verbal abuse, controlling attitude, jealousy, bitterness, and the list goes on, why is it so hard? Because? Why is it so hard for us to beat those things? Why do we allow ourselves to be dominated by meat so many times? Sometimes it even happens to us unexpectedly and we don't even know why it happens to us. Why does what Paul says happen to us, that Roberto has been reading in Romans? “....Because I don't do the good that I want but the evil that I don't want, that's what I do.....” Why do we do that? Why do I curse others instead of blessing them? Why do I hurt in word and deed? Why do I sometimes give free rein to my anger instead of controlling it? Why do I choose so many times not to forgive and imprison the other? Why do I sometimes want revenge on people? Why, if I am already a new man, why do these things happen? You guys know the general answer, right? because? Because there is sin in the heart, right? That is the general answer, but I have learned in my life that unless I do not spin more carefully, finer, I am not going to find my why and that it helps me to improve as a person. So let's think about several specific reasons that make us not do what God says, and let ourselves be dominated by the flesh. One of the first things is immaturity or ignorance. It must be recognized that many of us have stopped developing emotionally and decided to stay small. The dogs we had when we were little are the dogs we have when we grow up. And we decided, 'no, that's me'. I had an uncle who died, I was talking to him about something, about a bad attitude he had, and I told him, 'But, man, you can change. Look, do this, trying to start a conversation with him, and he would say to me 'how old am I?', and I say to him 'dude, you are 75 years old'. Well, now... at 75 I'm not going to change. That is a lie from Satan. Of course, we can change. How are we going to choose to stay stagnant and small when we can continue to grow. We can grow until the last day of our life. There is no excuse for us. Those who are in God, our life is a dynamic life. The Christian has a dynamic life. You should never say, I've come this far, I'm not going to grow anymore. Never. We have the opportunity to continue growing because we have all the resources of heaven at our disposal. So that's one reason, immaturity or ignorance. Sometimes we think that we can hurt because others have hurt us, so that justifies us. Or as he makes me, or she makes me, I make him. In any case, he deserves it. Then all those justifications that are lies start again. Other times we claim our rights: I have the right to feel this way or that way because he did it to me, he didn't do it, he stopped doing it, he didn't tell me... and we have all those mental reels that make us , then, prevent us from growing. So we stay very small and we can't do that. The other thing is that we are creatures of habit. We many times our relationships are used to it does, I answer; the girl said, I tell her such a thing; and so, they made me, I do. And they are simply habits that if we could really observe them carefully, if we stepped back for a moment and said, what is happening here? Do I have to continue acting in the same way, contaminating my environment or can I do something about it? Sometimes a very small change can make a big transformation in an entire environment. Sometimes it's just a little change in attitude in you and you say, 'I'm going to control such a thing; I'm going to master this'; that will be able to create a change in your environment. Treat it. I have tried it and I see that it always works. Anyway, look, if there isn't a change in your environment because you changed anyway, you win. In any case, you win because you are growing. Forget what others think, do, say, how they kick. That is their problem. The responsibility is on us, we change. If we change, it is quite possible that we will see change in others as well. Also because we are selfish. Are you selfish? Are any of you selfish? We are all selfish. No one can say they don't like things done the way you want them to, right? Perhaps you have learned to give in, to negotiate, but really, if we are honest, we all like them to do what we want to do. So we are selfish creatures, and we function very well when everything is going well for us. But when there is a conflict, a difficulty, then the old man comes out like a monster in there and comes back again and shows his claws. And we just have to tell him, 'No, old man, you stay hidden, you stay dumped where you were, back in hell you don't have to do anything here.' Sometimes in things as simple as in a food line. I have seen it several times and I have seen it in church. When those in the back see that the food is running out... the bad attitudes begin and they think 'look, that so-and-so took two thighs instead of the one that was hers'. And they start 'ba, ba, ba, ba, ba...' And getting upset and moving and grumbling. Why are we going to die because we don't eat that, because we get 3 grains of rice instead of a full plate? No, nothing will happen to us. So let's not think that someone is offending us for those things. Let's just let it go. On the road, right? that there sometimes.... that's where the worst comes out to me. I control it in the name of the Lord, but sometimes one sees things and they do things to one on the road that one immediately wants to do the same to the other. So there are moments where that will come out. In inheritance divisions, how many brothers who have loved each other to that point, stop talking to each other for years or treating each other or mistreating each other because something was not exactly as they wanted in the inheritance? Because instead of getting 35,000 dollars with 5 little kids, they only got 35,000. Life is always going to have opportunities for conflict and we have, from the beginning, to say, conflicts are not going to dominate me. I am not going to bring bad attitudes, I am not going to harm anyone because there is conflict. I am going to work in them as God wants me to work. That is a life principle and unless you determine that from now on, when the time comes you will fail. That is a principle by which we must live. We, too, are sometimes afraid to try something and it won't work. You say, 'Well, how about I treat my husband with love and he keeps saying harsh words to me. What if I do this and it doesn't work for me? Again, let's not do it just for the change, let's do it for ourselves. And another reason why it's so hard and why we keep making the same mistakes over and over again is because we find it very difficult to make changes in an already hardened heart. There are many degrees of hardening of the heart, but sometimes we reach the moment when our hearts are so hard, because we have all been hurt. No one here, unless they're a baby perhaps, can say that they haven't had a significant wound to their heart. Everyone in some way, even you can come from a very privileged home with a lot of love, and it could be that when you go to university someone hurts you, someone does not treat you with respect. In other words, in life at some point someone will hurt our hearts. And what happens when we are hurt is that life, so to speak, begins to write messages in our hearts and those messages begin to determine our life, messages like, for example, nobody cares about me. or nobody loves me I have to defend my rights, because otherwise someone will abuse me. I am not going to tolerate from any man what my mom tolerated from my dad. Whoever does it to me, pays me. You already have the idea, right? Many times we live with life maxims like these and it is up to each one of us to see why. I have seen in counseling, for example, a woman who, as a child, lived with a womanizing, abusive father, who, when she had her own relationship with a husband, had an attitude of arrogance and... with me, yes. No. Imagine if from the beginning we are already going to start with defensive attitudes, what can we expect from that marriage? There is going to be separation and division from the beginning. And I know that we often have attitudes, we have messages written in our hearts that God did not put there. We have to recognize that they are lies that Satan, that others wanted to mark our hearts with that, and we have to say, 'No, no more, that does not describe me. That describes the old man or the old woman, but it doesn't describe me.' And that's liberating. When you really look like that with a lot of intelligence, discern your heart and realize what is written there, and you remove that label, tear it off and throw it away, and replace it with the identity of Christ in your life, you will see how your life changes. It is something wonderful. I challenge you to do it. Because when we let those messages written in our hearts dominate us, what we do is that we cover our hearts with a protective layer so that nobody hurts us and hurts us. But that is an interference in having healthy relationships with others and in what God can do in our hearts because no one can penetrate it. You haven't met people that you look at them and say 'this is a facade, this is not the person themselves. This is a facade. What pain, what wound was there that marked that person in that way? So let's analyze our own lives because I know, I have had to remove labels in my life and when I have removed them I have realized how free I am in the Lord. So if you have problems like that, consistently you have problems with people; if the same people are always telling you the same thing, 'look, you came back again, you did this, the same thing and the same thing', I think it's true that it's time to say, 'Well, maybe there's some truth in this. Let me at least analyze it and see what I can do about it.' And you'll see. And then invoke the presence of the Lord, the healing power of the Lord and I assure you that he will heal your heart, and cleanse your heart. As we said before, that God puts purity in the heart, cleanses the heart, and if our heart is so damaged, he throws it away and gives us a new one. So if we have those resources, why not take advantage of them? Ask the Lord for healing and commit to doing what he wants you to do. Another point, which we have already seen indirectly, is that you have the authority to decide what enters your heart. Our heart is not totally vulnerable unless we allow it to be vulnerable. We have the power of God in us, so we have to guard our hearts and be aware of what enters it, because we have the authority to do so. Someone once said that we can't stop birds from flying over our heads, but we can stop them from nesting on our heads, right? And with the heart it is the same thing. We often cannot avoid the situations that happen, which bring strong emotions into our lives, they may haunt the heart but in no way do we have to allow them to enter the heart and settle there and do harm. So we have control for that. Remember that temptations and emotions that could be harmful are not sin in and of themselves. Feeling anger or feeling angry is not a sin in itself, it is what we decide to do with temptations and harmful emotions, that is the problem. That is where the problem lies, what we do; not feeling them, since sometimes one says, ah, well, I feel that, and one feels guilty. No, go ahead of the Lord, ask the Lord to take away the emotion too if it affects you, but don't think that you have sinned. That is a totally different process. In Proverbs 4:23 it says: "...above all things guarded, guard your heart, for life springs from it." And that is a reality. I practice that verse and I am always aware because that verse tells me that I am responsible for what enters my heart. I am not a puppet that emotions manage at their whim. No, quite the contrary, I decide what enters my heart and what does not enter my heart. And I can, in the power of God, get rid of what has already entered my heart before, that is contaminating it and I can then ask the Lord to replace it with things that please him and honor him and bring healthy relationships to my life. Never ignore your heart. Most of us ignore the heart. We continue life because what is easier? Carry on with life, continue to occupy ourselves with our work, with our things instead of paying attention to the heart because sometimes it hurts and because it is work. But I believe that we always have to be in conversation with the heart. If daily we are in conversation with the heart and with God we will be able to be alert to what is happening there. I practice that. In fact, there is something that I practice when I have a very difficult situation that I don't know how to handle and my emotions are confused. You know, I have a mental shelf, in my mind I have a shelf. You don't see it, but I know I have it there. It's a bookcase, it's there, so I say, 'OK, I don't understand you right now. You are a strange animal for me.' I don't understand this emotion, I don't understand what I have to do. I don't understand perhaps God's purpose with that. So what I do is I take that thing that's weird, and that I don't understand, I put it on the shelf, and I let it mature there for a few days. I mean, ok, now you stay there and later..... you guys are thinking that I'm weird, you're looking at me like 'this woman is weird!' I'll leave it there. And then later I visit them when I am calmer, when I have prayed, I visit them and then, look, God has always given me a new light on how to see that problem and how to solve it. It's something, it works every time. Never make decisions, never react at the moment when the emotion is strongest. Wait a little bit and soak it, dress it a little bit and then revisit it and come.... But, first, obviously bring the Lord into the picture. Cover it with prayer and you will see how much easier it is resolved. Have conversation with your heart continually. I'm going to give you an example from my life where I practiced that and I asked permission, it's an example of my oldest daughter, Sonia, I asked her permission to share this. When Sonia was about 14 years old, she went through a difficult stage. That happens to some teenagers, right? They go through stages that are a bit difficult. The point is that if I said yes, she said no. If I said green, she said red. In other words, everything was the opposite, very, very difficult and it was something that went on and on and on. The time came when one day we had a difficult situation where she said some hurtful words to me and I responded, that is, my heart, not me, my heart responded with hate, because it was already so loaded, I already had so much resentment in my heart. And at that moment, I thought 'Disappear it'. I even felt violence against her. When I felt that, I said 'this can't be. This is not god's. How can it be that I am going to relate to my daughter in this way? And what I did was, I didn't do anything, I didn't talk to her at all. The situation just happened, I locked myself in my room and began to pray, and I told him: 'Lord, this is what is in my heart. I have discovered that in my heart at this moment there is resentment, there is hatred, there are even emotions of violence against my daughter. God, I know you don't like that. I beg your pardon. Forgive me, Lord,' because the time had come when I didn't pray for her, I no longer wanted to see her, it was a difficult situation. And I know that many of you can identify with me because you have gone through these situations with your children, with your wife, with your husband, with anyone that happens to us. And then when I locked myself in my room, I opened my heart to the Lord, and I said, 'Look, Lord, this is what it is. Anyway you know it and this is what is here right now. Heal my heart, do not allow this to settle in my heart in such a way that it will determine how I am going to relate to my daughter. Because I thought many things. She is now 14 but one day she will be 21, 22, Lord, I know that you have called her to be a great woman of God, I know that you love her, I know that you have a purpose for her, but Right now I don't know what to do with her.' And I stayed there praying and I said, 'Lord, I'm not leaving here until you do a work in my life. The point is that I was on my knees next to my bed, praying, praying, before the Lord and when I got up from there I felt such great peace. And the Lord changed my heart and I began again to pray with her and declare the purpose that God I knew He had in her, and then something wonderful happened. When she was 15 years old, when Sonia was 15 years old, she reconciled with the Lord. She had accepted the Lord at the age of 6 with me and at the age of 15 she was reconciled with the Lord and all those negative attitudes that she had adopted as part of her personality were gone. And I can tell you, not now, she has been a sweet, wonderful daughter for a long time and I am so grateful to the Lord for the daughter he has given me and our relationship is becoming more and more friends every day. One can say that because one has acted correctly at some time in his life in the past. But if we continue giving course to our resentment, those emotions that dominate us, then that good day will never come when we can reap the fruit of our love. So it's something we should practice always, always. So remember, God is on your side and what he is asking of you is not too much. He will always, always keep the promises he has for you. And other things that we have to value others, especially those who are closest to us. Each of those around us are created in the image and likeness of God, just like you and me, so that's why they deserve respect. Know that insults and disrespect are never, ever, ever justified. Never. The situation can be as horrible as it is, but insults and disrespect are never, ever, ever justified. Never. There is no reason, there is no reason for you to curse for curse. Quite the contrary, when you are worse, then you have words of greater blessing. So don't let those situations contaminate your life. Love so that God's purpose in your life is fulfilled. The word says that God wants us to love with genuine love and do you know where genuine love comes from? From a pure heart. And when we are so aware of our own needs, our own emotions, what we do is look at our navels. That's what we're doing. We are like this all the time, just looking after ourselves and there has to come a time when we say, 'Look, I'm not going to be more focused on myself, I'm going to be focused on others. I'm going to love as God wants us to love.' So now real quick, because I know my time is up, we're going to very briefly touch on some strategies that we can do to keep the heart hygiene. As we say, the heart must be cared for and maintained. The first thing is to accept that we have a problem. That's the hardest part. Accept that we have a problem. Accept responsibility for the situation that is arising. At least on our part, although it is not one hundred percent our problem, but we have to at least accept our part. That's the first win, in a private, internal win. But if you have that victory, you know that you can move on to the other victory, which is the external and public victory where you can do what God wants you to do. So number one, accept your responsibility, accept that you have a problem. The other thing is that we have to stop being reactive to be proactive. That's a very, very familiar word now. We have to stop being reactive to be proactive. Make up your mind to stop being a victim and make up your mind to be a victorious person over the circumstance. They didn't always make me and I do... poor thing about me. No, none of that. I am going to be pro active. A proactive person sets specific goals. It doesn't just say, oh God bless my life, may relationships be good. No, be very specific. What is the problem? Well, the problem is this, this. What is my part? This this. Well then I'm going to do something to solve it. A while ago a sister from church blessed me so much with a testimony that she shared with me. That sister comes from a home where there was a lot of difficulty, where she received verbal, physical and even sexual abuse; and the relationship with his father was... there wasn't a relationship. This woman accepted the Lord here at our church, and she has been growing beautifully in the Lord. And some time ago he decided to take the bull by the horns, as if to say, and he says 'I have to do something with my relationship with my father. There was a distance obviously but there was no peace in her heart, she wanted to have some contact at least with her father. What he decided was, I'm going to take a trip, I'm going to visit my country, I'm going to visit my father. And so she did and there she looked for the moment, to meet her father and she went with terror in her heart because she did not know how she was going to react when she saw him. He hadn't seen him for years, but he went with his heart ready to do what was pleasing to God. That was the only thing she knew: I want to please God. He got there and says that God did a miracle, but a portentous one. She saw her dad and instead of feeling all the anger that she had felt for so many years, all the resentment for everything he had done and what he had stopped doing because he had never been a loving father, she was able to grab his hand, This man is already an old man, he grabbed his hand and said: 'Dad, I am a daughter of God now and I love you', and from there it was a wonderful thing. They talked. She says that she felt a great weight lifted from her heart and she is a free woman because she realized at that moment how tied she was due to her father's lack of forgiveness. So those are the things that happen when we are proactive. Don't let life go by, the days, the months, the years. Do something. If it turns out badly, look, at least you know that you have done it in the name of the Lord and that you wanted to please him and if it turns out well, everyone wins so you shouldn't lose those opportunities. Another thing we can do is recruit a journey partner. Sometimes we have situations where we have patterns of behavior that it is good that we can respond to, that we can have someone with whom to share our difficulty. But for that you have to have a teachable spirit. I know most people don't like being told the truth, right? They say, look what happens is that in that situation you did this and I was feeling that. And the person says, 'No, I don't. Me angry, how dare you say that I was angry. I wasn't angry, I was very calm.' >So if we find someone we trust, of our own gender with whom we can talk about these things, to change, that's a great help, because that person can ask us questions about our progress and help us with that. And another thing is to recognize that the hygiene of our hearts is a daily matter, do not fall asleep on the straw. As I already said, keep the conversation flowing with your heart time after time and always continue... Although you may believe, it has happened to me, sometimes I think that I have an area of my personality dominated or of my heart dominated and At the moment another test comes where I realize that I am still raw, raw, raw and I have to make adjustments in that area again. Isn't that happening to us? Sometimes we think that everything is fine and suddenly a situation arises and those emotions come back to dominate us. So it's daily heart hygiene. We also have to pray and put into practice the word which is all we've been talking about, right? God knows what is in us and he always, always answers the prayer of the just. So we can go with confidence in it. And the last one is that we have to actively trust in the Lord. we have to learn about its attributes and appropriate its promises. God has not moved nor is he going to move on your side. He is always there by your side and will always be willing to give you what you need when you need it. In Luke 4:18 he talks about one of the Lord's missions and says this: Jesus speaking of himself says, "... the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has sent me to heal to the brokenhearted....” Who here doesn't have a broken heart? TRUE? We all have some brokenness. So if so, we know from God's word that we are certain that he will heal our hearts if we are willing to trust him. And to finish I want to bless you through....., in many religious traditions there is what is called the final blessing, after the preaching there is a final blessing. And what I want is to declare about you Colossians 3, with another part of the same that we have spoken about. So I ask you, let's stand up and I ask you if you feel comfortable, close your eyes, and listen to the words, internalize them and seal them in your heart and in your spirit, as if that person is you. Amen. In the name of the Lord I declare that you are a new man, a new woman, that you have stripped yourself of the old man and his actions and have clothed yourself with the new one. And that you will faithfully guard your heart from all contamination and will continue to renew yourself according to the image of God that he embodied in you from the moment he created you. I declare that you are chosen by God, holy and loved by him. You will clothe yourself every day with endearing mercy, benignity, humility, meekness and patience and that is why you will be able to be tolerant with others. You will ask for forgiveness if someone has a complaint against you and you will forgive when you have a complaint against another. You will forgive generously in the way that Christ forgives you. You will also put on the dress of love, and that is why you will be able to live in unity with others. The peace of God will rule your heart and you will live gratefully In the name of the Lord I also declare that the word of Christ will dwell in you abundantly so that you will be able to teach and exhort others in all wisdom and by abundant grace that he has deposited in your heart you will continually sing hymns and spiritual psalms to him. Everything you do, whether in word or deed, you will do in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. You will do everything from the heart and for the Lord and not for men. And you will live with the conviction that the one who began the good work in you is more than faithful and is more than willing to continue perfecting it until the end of your days. Lord, in your name Father, I seal this word in the life of my brothers and my sisters, Lord. Lord, you are the owner of his heart, Father. And Lord from this day forward, Lord, each one of us has a covenant with you to keep our hearts clean, Lord. Lord in your name, Father, we are going to strip ourselves, Lord, of all contamination and we are going to allow and beg you, Lord, that in our hearts you be the one that fills it, Lord, that you put in it everything we need, Lord, to maintain healthy relationships. O Lord heal our hearts, Lord. Heal relationships, Lord, at home, in marriage, Lord, with our children, Lord, with our brothers in the church, Father, with our extended family, in our work, Lord. Heal all those relationships, Lord. Heal our land, Father. Lord I believe, Father, that this word that has been proclaimed today, Lord, is your word, Lord, and that you will continue, Lord, working in us, Lord, according to your power, Lord, and according to the riches that your you have in glory, Lord, reserved for each one of us, Lord. Lord, take us safely to our homes, Lord. And continue the work, Lord, until the end of our days, Lord, in the name of Jesus. Amen.