Saturday night, Vince asked us what happens when we don’t get what we want. We came up with an ugly list: grumbling, anger, yelling, impatience, screaming, pouting, tears, judging, accusations, bitterness, resentment, slamming doors. We could go on. This happens a lot, doesn’t it? It seems like every time we turn around, something is standing between us and the things we want.

So what do we do? To answer that question, Vince introduced us to the Three Trees. Our friends at the Christian Counseling and Education Foundation developed the Three Trees as a way to explain how the human heart works: it is extremely valuable in helping us understand our behavior, diagnose our heart, and chart a path of repentance.

To understand the diagram, you have to begin with Luke 6:43-45:

“For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”

Vince helped us understand that these verses show us that we are made of two parts: the inner and the outer, spiritual and physical, soul (or heart) and body. What happens outside (our words and actions) is related to what happens inside (our desires and cravings). Furthermore, what happens inside will eventually become obvious on the outside.

In other words, circumstances don’t make you sin. People don’t make you sin. Rather, circumstances reveal the sin that is already in our hearts. Do you want to change? Do you want to grow in the Christian life? It’s going to be really hard to bring about genuine, lasting change without understanding this central truth. See James 4:1-2 to learn more.

Check back over the next few days to learn more about the eight individual parts of this diagram…

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