Minding the Heart Quotes

“We may never have thought of the Christian life in this way. But in reality, we may be practicing it by relegating our spiritual walk to well-defined religious activities such as church attendance, group Bible studies, and personal times of “devotion.” The rest of our life—whatever else consumes our time—is not part of the journey. It’s a vacation. It doesn’t count. This is contrary to Scripture. In God’s eyes, our journey includes all of our life. We are always on our journey, making decisions and taking steps in one direction or another. Even when we avoid deciding about something, we are deciding, taking a step in some direction—no decision is a decision. Thus our spiritual growth or heart transformation includes all of the activities of our life—work, family life, social life, recreation, physical exercise (if we do it), and so on.”
― Robert Saucy, Minding the Heart: The Way of Spiritual Transformation

“In the ancient world, especially among nomadic people, life was lived on foot. They walked step by step along a “path” or “way” in search of food and water for their flocks and herds. As a result, walking became a metaphor for the journey of life. We are called “to live [our lives] before God in such a way that every single step is made with reference to [him] and every day experiences him close at hand.”4 To each of us, God says as He did to Abraham centuries ago, “Walk before me” (Gen. 17:1). Walking, however, is never simply walking per se. It is always walking along a particular way. We can walk along “the way of the LORD” (Gen. 18:19)—“the way of the righteous” (Ps. 1:6; cf. Prov. 8:20; 2 Peter 2:21), “the path of life” (Ps. 16:11; Prov. 10:17), “the good way” (Jer. 6:16), and “the way of the truth” (2 Peter”
― Robert Saucy, Minding the Heart: The Way of Spiritual Transformation

“The transformation of which I speak is nothing less than the liberating, joyful experience of increasing freedom from the power of sin’s bondage.”
― Robert Saucy, Minding the Heart: The Way of Spiritual Transformation

“The important question is, How do I see my activity? Is it something added to my faith in the sense that faith makes me a Christian, and now as a believer I need to work on obeying my Lord’s commands? If this is my perspective, the focus in my pursuit of spiritual growth will tend to be on the activities of my life. My stress will be on working hard to transform my behavior. If on the other hand, I believe that all of my genuinely spiritual activities are produced by the life of God in me, my concern for transformation will drive me to attend more to my openness to God and his life, in other words, to my faith. I must attend to my activities and even discipline my behavior. But my ultimate goal in all of these activities will be to grow in faith or openness to God and his grace. A helpful way to pose the questions may be to ask: Is the basic issue in my success or failure in spiritual growth a matter of my behavior or of my faith? When I wrongfully respond with anger to someone, is the problem one of behavior or of faith? If I fudge the truth in a difficult situation, is it a failure in good works or faith? Was the first sin of Adam and Eve in eating the forbidden fruit wrong behavior or unbelief? The”
― Robert Saucy, Minding the Heart: The Way of Spiritual Transformation

“The picture of continually walking may be unpleasant and tiring to us. To constantly pay attention to our next step—always thinking about whether it’s along the path of life or along the way of destruction—takes a lot of thought and effort. Wouldn’t it be nice just to be able to get off the road and relax for a while? Or, as someone put it, “Lord, please give me the vacation of a second!”
― Robert Saucy, Minding the Heart: The Way of Spiritual Transformation

“2:2). Or we can tread the alternative route—“the way of the wicked” (Pss. 1:6; 146:9), the “dark and slippery” way (Ps. 35:6), and “the false way” (Ps. 119:104, 128). The point is that each one of us is on our own spiritual journey, always walking, always stepping, always moving along a path. One path is like the “light of dawn, that shines brighter and brighter until the full day” (Prov. 4:18), while the other is a path of pain and grief and ultimately final destruction (Ps. 1:6). Thus we need to pray with the psalmist: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way” (Ps. 139:23–24).”
― Robert Saucy, Minding the Heart: The Way of Spiritual Transformation

“death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” (Rom. 6:4; cf. 2 Cor. 12:18)”
― Robert Saucy, Minding the Heart: The Way of Spiritual Transformation

“significance of the foot than modern languages. Human action consists of spatial forward movement to a goal.”2 Old Testament wisdom and poetry frequently use the metaphors of “steps” (‘ashur) for “living.” This is picked up by New Testament authors, who use the term for “walking around” (peripateō) as a metaphor for “living” or one’s “lifestyle.” “My steps have held fast to Your paths. My feet have not slipped.” (Ps. 17:5) “The steps of a man are established by the LORD, and He delights in his way.” (Ps. 37:23; cf. 31) “Our heart has not turned back, and our steps have not deviated from Your way.” (Ps. 44:18) “He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm.” (Ps. 40:2) “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into”
― Robert Saucy, Minding the Heart: The Way of Spiritual Transformation

“Living Step by Step Because nomadic life in ancient times was defined by a continual walking from place to place, the Bible emphasizes the importance of a person’s steps and feet. As one Old Testament scholar explained, “Although the Hebrew is keenly aware of the role the hand plays in human actions, [it] still places more emphasis on the”
― Robert Saucy, Minding the Heart: The Way of Spiritual Transformation