You're listening to the battle ready Bible study. My name is Aaron McManus, and I'm here with my dad and co-host, Erwin Raphael McManus.

We're going to jump straight into the verse this morning. It is Proverbs 21. 1. In the Lord's hand, the king's heart is a stream of water that he channels towards all who please him.

I think the imagery here in Proverbs 21 is really interesting because in another place, Jeremiah talks about the human heart, that God will take our heart of stone and turn it into a heart of flesh.

I never really like that imagery because I'm going, wait a minute, heart of flesh, that's what I have.

I want a heart of plutonium. I want to be Ironman. But what the scriptures are

actually telling us is that when we distance ourselves from God, our hearts become hardened and we

become hearts of stone. And the gift God will give us is actually making us human again.

That giving us a heart of flesh is exactly what God wants to do. And then here you have this

interesting imagery where in the Lord's hand, the king's heart is a stream of water. So look at the

contrast. You can either have a heart of stone or your heart can become like a stream of water.

What's interesting to me is that even neuroscience tells us

that there is a process of the rigidity of our brains. I remember years ago, and I've worked with

like three different neuroclinics, that in one neuroclinic, they said, we have found the lubricate

of the brain. And we're all just kind of pause, what's the lubricant of the brain? And they said, we have found the lubricate of the brain. And we're all just kind of pause,

what's the lubricant of the brain? And they said gratitude, which is what I wrote about in

uprising 20 years ago. And what's interesting is that neuroscientists are telling us,

grateful people have brains that are like streams of water. They're agile, adaptive, creative, imaginative,

pliable. Ungrateful people have hearts or brains like stone, rigid, unchanging, dogmatic,

incapable of seeing the new.

And so even when I'm listening to this, when it's talking about our hearts, it's also

talking about our brains, that when we're in God's hands, our hearts become streams of water,

become adaptive, flexible, pliable, teachable.

...