How is your heart today? Our hearts can be in a real mess. Maybe that’s where you are just now. And you don’t need this Bible Bite to remind you that your heart has seen far better days. If you can’t identify with one or more of the conditions below, what would you add to the list?
- Seething with anger
- Dying with bitterness
- Languishing with guilt
- Crying with sadness
- Hurting from disappointments
- Rotting with filth
- Recklessly racing with busy-ness
- Fuming with frustration
- Freezing with coldness —- or,
- Thriving with devotion
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The condition of my heart is critical to my usefulness for the Lord. Spiritual living is heart work, and it is also hard work. Our hearts can spiral downward so quickly and easily – or so subtly and gradually.
If I shrug my shoulders and say: “I really don’t know what’s eating away inside me and robbing me of my joy in Christ,” you could call me out on that and question my honesty and transparency. In God’s presence, it really doesn’t take long for the ‘genesis of decline’ to be identified, even if we still want to deny it as the primary culprit.
If my heart is in the decline mode, it will impede my usefulness for God and rob God of the ascending fragrance of a worshipful life. And the flip side of the matter is – I, too, will be deprived of the joy, contentment, peace, and power that comes from a thriving heart of devotion to Christ.
The degree to which I enjoy Christ will be the extent to which I experience the spiritual power to deny self and serve God. Is your heart open and receptive to God right now? Is it fertile soil where God can sow seeds of service and reap a harvest?
In 2Corinthians 8, Paul expresses a genuine care and burden for the Christians in Corinth. He wanted to see them honour their original intentions of pulling together a financial gift for the distressed saints in Jerusalem. He knew that as much as the recipients would be materially blessed by the gift, the givers themselves would be spiritually blessed by giving. Paul wanted to see the Corinthian believers blessed.
It hardly needs to be said because it is a truism: there is no blessing or joy in stingy selfishness or myopic miserliness.
But it wasn’t just Paul who wanted to see the Corinthians blessed by their giving. Paul thanked God for putting into Titus’ heart an intense care and a positive desire for the Corinthians that wouldn’t naturally have been there. Paul didn’t put it into Titus’ heart by twisting his arm or by cornering or cajoling him. It was a work of God in Titus’ heart. Look at this verse:
But thanks be to God, who put into the heart of Titus the same earnest care I have for you. 2 Corinthians 8:16
What condition is my heart in today? Is it fertile ground for the Lord? Has He been putting something into my heart and creating a ‘spiritual longing’ that wouldn’t naturally be there? Am I suppressing it or opening myself up to further dealings with the Lord?
Dear Child of God – what shape is your heart in today? Walk carefully and closely with the Lord today.
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