The Heart of the Matter

To address a problem, you’ve got to address the problem. That is, you’ve got to get to the heart of a problem rather than just focusing on the symptoms of the problem.

Concentrating only on fixing the symptoms actually serves to cover up the true nature of the illness. So it is with our souls. We must address the problem directly if we are to have any hope for lasting change.

As we see in Romans 7, the problem of our sinful nature goes deeper than our behavior, thoughts, or even our will. The real problem is at the core of our being, and it is referred to as ‘the flesh’. This problem is a deception rooted in our hearts that tells us “God is not the true god, and we are not His creation.”

We find ‘the flesh’ at work in Genesis 3. The serpent first lied to Eve about who God was, and then lied to Eve about who she was. Eve believed a lie, then acted on the lie and sinned.

Today, ‘the flesh’ deceives us in other ways. It tells us that the value of our life is based on what we do, and that our standing before God is based on our performance. It tells us that what the world has to offer us is better than what God has to offer us, which leads a myriad of sins.

To get free from this, we must know that it is not primarily our job to fix ourselves or other people.