“Keep and guard your heart with all
vigilance and above all that you guard,
for out of it flow the springs of life.”
Proverbs 4:23
The one
thing God requires in order to have close fellowship is passion, to be wanted
more than anything else. Jeremiah 29:13
states, “Then you will seek Me, inquire for, and require Me [as a vital necessity] and find Me when you search for Me with all your
heart. “ If you want to have intimacy with God you must be
passionate about it.
Not too long
ago I noticed my own passion waning. Alarmed, I asked God what the problem
could be! Where was my hunger, my desire, to spend time with Him? God told me, that in my case,
it had been a lack of focus, spending too much time pursuing other things, being
entertained, and not enough time drawing away to be alone. I had simply become
too full of the cares of life, and this world and therefore had no hunger for
anything else. Since then, God has continued to speak to me about guarding my
heart.
Besides just being too busy and not
drawing away mentally to be aware of His presence, and developing a distracted
heart, God has shown me that my heart can become divided as well when I hold on
to an unsanctified desire. It is ever so easy to accept Jesus as savior but so
much more challenging to accept Him as lord. Yet, we can’t do one without the
other. 1 John 2:6b states that “This is
the only way to be sure we’re in God. Anyone who claims to be intimate with God
ought to live the same kind of life Jesus lived” (The Message) And what kind of
life did Jesus live?
John 5:30 makes it clear, “I am able to do nothing from Myself [independently, of My own accord—but only as I am taught by God and as I get His orders]. Even as I hear, I judge [I decide as I am bidden to decide. As the voice comes to Me, so I give a decision], and My judgment is right (just, righteous), because I do not seek or consult My own will [I have no desire to do what is pleasing to Myself, My own aim, My own purpose] but only the will and pleasure of the Father Who sent Me.”
When God tells me, “don’t buy that now”, or “this relationship isn’t right for you” or “wait for my timing on this” I have decision to make. Am I going to live the life that Jesus lived and seek only God’s pleasure or am I going to allow my heart to become divided as I value my own will more? We all have desires, and not every desire is wrong, but it is wrong when God tell us to wait, it is wrong when we want this desire above pleasing God.
My challenge today is from Psalm 119:9-10 “How shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed and keeping watch [on himself] according to Your word [conforming his life to it]. With my whole heart have I sought You, inquiring for and of You and yearning for You; Oh, let me not wander or step aside [either in ignorance or willfully] from Your commandments.” My challenge today is to guard my heart and lay aside my will to seek God’s. Please help me, Holy Spirit.
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