He went on: "What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person's heart, that evil thoughts come - sexual immortality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person"
I was reading in Mark and this verse jumped out to me and it was as if a light switched on. Honestly, it is always amazing when God brings me revelations, He his constantly leaving me in awe and He is the only one that can bring true clarification and depth to the Bible.
Here's the revelation that I received, and when it comes to myself sharing, I encourage you to take it to God. This is what He spoke to me.
It is not what goes into us that makes us defiled, it's what comes out. To me, I read this as "it is not what happens to us that defiles us, but it's our actions."
When things happen to us, we can either let it harden our hearts through unforgivenesss and holding onto bitterness or we can keep our softened hearts go unaffected. Feel the emotions and work through the situation but do your best to not have it consume you.
It is through hardened hearts that our responses and actions become defiled. For example, a person doesn't have a greed issue because of a positive experience but hurt at one point. Maybe someone stole money, placed a bet and lost, or went bankrupt. They have been financially hurt, they know what it's like to have little, nothing or suffer a major loss, therefore they chase after or hoard money so it never happens again. This leaves them with the issue of greed which as the verse says above, becoming defiled.
Another example: I believe that envy and slander comes with comparison; instead of celebrating our differences, we allow them to become insults to us and a wall that divides. We all have something that we aren't 100% in love with about ourselves but every person is different and faces different attacks from the enemy. For instance, you may see someone that is smaller than you and wish you could be more like them but you hear them complain about their body and from an envy and comparison state, you roll your eyes because you think to yourself "how could you say that when I'm like this?" This reaction is not only judging that person for dealing whatever they may be dealing with but your heart is not softened with compassion for this person but hardened.
It is not what has been done to us, but our responses to those things that will label us as defiled or not.
Most times you cannot control what happens to you, but you certainly can control your reaction and if you are struggling, go to God, He is everything we need and more.
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