INTRODUCTION
Guard Your Hearts
Whenever we hear about a crime on the TV, or read about it in the paper, we are left scratching our heads, wondering how on earth someone could have done such a thing. For most of us, it’s hard to comprehend an urge to harm someone or steal something that is so strong we actually follow through, especially if we consider the consequences to the victim, their family, and ourselves.
Proverbs 23:7 says, “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” What we believe in our hearts affects our thinking, and what we think affects who we are and what we do.
Proverbs 4:23 says, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” What is in our heart becomes our thoughts. Our thoughts become our words, what we say becomes our actions, our actions turn into habits, our habits form our characters, and our characters shape our destinies.
The fact is, many criminals have hardened their hearts, their thoughts have developed into a different belief system resulting in different thinking patterns, and these thoughts impacted the choices and actions that led to their incarceration. In this course, we will be studying some of the common beliefs and thoughts of criminals that have come out of a hardened heart, and match them up, one by one, with truths from God’s Word.
But this course isn’t just for criminals - it’s for everyone. If we’re honest, we’ll be able to see ourselves in some of these thinking errors, and we’ll see someone we’re counseling in other thinking errors. If we don’t examine ourselves and listen to the nudging of the Holy Spirit, our hearts could become hardened, our thoughts set in stone, and we could change our own destinies with these same thinking errors.
Continue to Chapter 1
