He began to say to his disciples first, “Be on your guard against the leaven, of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.” (Luke 12:1)
Watch out and be on guard against all greed, because one’s life is not in the abundance of his possessions. (15)
As I was reading those words, I was thinking about what hypocrisy or greed may be in my heart. I’m still thinking about that, but another thought came to me.
Jesus is very concerned about our hearts and what’s going on in there. And so he says twice in this chapter, “Guard yourselves; guard your hearts.”
How do we do that, that though?
It strikes me that one way is to watch carefully what kind of “dialogues” we’re holding in our hearts.
In fact, the word translated “thought” in verse 17 is where our word “dialogue” comes from.
The man in Jesus’ parable was thinking in his heart. He was having a dialogue with himself in his heart. And it exposed the greed that was there.
Do you want to know what is going on in your heart? What dialogues are going on in there?
Not only with yourself, but what fictional dialogues do you hold with others in your heart? You know what I’m talking about. How often do you have arguments with others in your heart?
All these dialogues expose what’s there in our hearts. And so Jesus tells us to be on our guard about where those dialogues are going and where they are leading us to.
Father, help me to guard my heart. Against hypocrisy. Against greed. Against anything that would damage my relationship with you and the people around me.
Moment to Moment (Bible blog) 