Reality Christian Magazine Spring Volume 8 | Page 14

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7 Marks of a Right Heart
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7 aspects of a heart that has been made right with God. We know that our hearts start out deceitful and wicked (Jeremiah 17.9) but when God radically transforms us, everything changes!

1

A RIGHT HEART IS A NEW
HEART (EZEK. 36:26)

It is not the heart with which a person is
born—but another heart put in them by the
Holy Spirit. It is a heart which has new tastes,
new joys, new sorrows, new desires, new
hopes, new fears, new likes, new dislikes. It
has new views about the soul, sin, God, Christ,
salvation, the Bible, prayer, heaven, hell, the
world, and holiness. It is like a farm with a
new and good tenant. “Therefore, if anyone
is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has
passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2
Cor. 5:17).

2

A RIGHT HEART IS A BROKEN AND
CONTRITE HEART (PSALM 51:17)

“Because your heart was tender, and you humbled
yourself before the Lord when you heard what I
spoke against this place and against its inhabitants,
that they would become a desolation and a curse,
and you tore your clothes and wept before Me, I
also have heard you,” says the Lord.” -2 Kings 22:19

It has within it “the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba Father” (Rom. 8:15). Its daily
feeling is, “Your face, Lord, will I seek” (Psalm
27:8). It is drawn by an habitual inclination to speak to God about
spiritual things—weakly, feebly,
and imperfectly perhaps—but
speak it must. It finds it necessary
to pour out itself before God, as before a friend, and to spread before Him
all its needs and desires. It tells Him all its
secrets. It keeps back nothing from Him. You
might as well try to persuade a person to live
without breathing, as to persuade the possessor of a right heart to live without praying.

A RIGHT HEART IS A HEART
WHICH BELIEVES ON CHRIST
ALONE FOR SALVATION, AND
IN WHICH CHRIST DWELLS BY
FAITH (ROM. 10:10; EPH. 3:17)

It rests all its hopes of pardon and eternal life
on Christ’s atonement, Christ’s mediation, and
Christ’s intercession. It is sprinkled in Christ’s
blood from an evil conscience (Heb. 10:22). It
turns to Christ as the compass-needle turns
to the north. It looks to Christ for daily peace,
mercy, and grace—as the sun-flower looks to
the sun. It feeds on Christ for its daily sustenance, as Israel fed on the manna in the wilderness. It sees in Christ a special fitness to
supply all its needs and requirements. It leans
on Him, hangs on Him, builds on Him, cleaves
to Him, as its physician, guardian, husband,
and friend.

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6

A RIGHT HEART IS A PURIFIED
HEART (ACTS 15:9; MATT. 5:8)

It loves holiness, and hates sin. It strives daily
to cleanse itself from all filthiness of flesh and
spirit (2 Cor. 7:1). It abhors that which is evil,
and cleaves to that which is good. It delights
in the law of God, and has that law engraved
on it, that it may not forget it (Psalm 119:11).
It longs to keep the law more perfectly, and
takes pleasure in those who love the law. It
loves God and people. Its affections are set on
things above. It never feels so light and happy
as when it is most holy; and it looks forward
to heaven with joy, as the place where perfect
holiness will at length be attained.

By J.C. Ryle: excerpt from the book Old Paths

It is broken off from pride, self-conceit, and
self-righteousness. Its former high thoughts
of self are cracked, shattered, and shivered to
atoms. It thinks itself guilty, unworthy, and
corrupt. Its former stubbornness, heaviness,
and insensibility have thawed, disappeared,
and passed away. It no longer thinks lightly
of offending God. It is tender, sensitive, and
jealously fearful of running into sin (2 Kings
22:19). It is humble, lowly, and self-abased,
and sees in itself no good thing.

3

A RIGHT HEART IS A PRAYING
HEART

A RIGHT HEART IS A
HEART THAT FEELS
CONFLICT WITHIN IT
(GAL. 5:17)

It finds within itself two opposing
principles contending for the mastery—the flesh lusting against the
spirit, and the spirit against the flesh.
It knows by experience what Paul means
when he says, “I see a law in my members
warring against the law of my mind” (Rom.
7:23). The wrong heart knows nothing
of this strife. The strong man
armed keeps the wrong heart
as their palace, and their goods
are at peace (Luke 11:21). But
when the rightful King takes possession of the heart, a struggle begins
which never ends until death. The
right heart may be known by its warfare, quite as much as by its peace.

7

A RIGHT HEART IS HONEST, UNDIVIDED, AND TRUE (LUKE 8:15;1
CHRON. 12:33; HEB. 10:22)

There is nothing about it of falsehood, hypocrisy, or image-acting. It is not double
or divided. It really is what it professes to be, feels what it professes
to feel, and believes what it professes to believe. Its faith may be feeble.
Its obedience may be very imperfect.
But one thing will always distinguish
the right heart. Its religion will be real,
genuine, thorough, and sincere.
SUMMARY
A heart such as that which I have
now described, has always been
the possession of all true Christians of every name, nation,
people and tongue. They have
differed from one another on
many subjects—but they have all
been of a right heart. Some of them
have fallen, for a season, like David and
Peter—but their hearts have never entirely
departed from the Lord. They have often
proved themselves to be men and women
laden with infirmities—but their hearts have
been right in the sight of God. They
have und erstood one another on
earth. They have found that their
experience was everywhere one
and the same. They will understand each other even better in the
world to come. All that have had
right hearts upon earth, will find
that they have one heart when
they enter heaven.

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