All Your Heart
All Your Heart
"And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart..." (Mark 12:30)
The Lord loves us with a perfect and complete love. Does it not still amaze you when you consider His heart of love toward us? He does not love us with partiality nor does He do anything in part or in halvds. The work of original creation was finished with God's stamp of approval that everything was called "good" and the work of the cross was sufficient with Christ's triumphant words, "It is finished!". This work of the new creation calls us "good!"
Our love is meant to be a response to His love. When Jesus summarizes all of the Law, He calls us to love God with all that we have, starting with our heart. The heart is more than the muscle that pumps blood throughout our whole body, it represents the spiritual center of our being. We are called to love God with all of our heart...in response to Christ's blood pumped into our body.
So what is the heart (as explained in the Bible)?
The heart can be summarized as the inner core of our being, our spiritual state before God,
and the command center of all our desire, direction, and affection. The heart follows what it values the most. Jesus put it this way, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matt. 6:21).
But how can we love God with all of our heart?
There are so many things that we have to deal with on the outside but it is really what goes on the inside of our heart that determines where we are at. As Proverbs 4:23 says, "Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life."
Ever since the Fall of man, our hearts gravitate toward selfishness and can easily deceive us and lead us astray. The Law of God reveals how we fall short of God's holy and perfect standards. But Jesus came to release our debt, give us a new heart, and to recreate us into a new creation.
The prophet Ezekiel said, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them" (Ezek. 36:26-27). This happens when we put our faith and trust solely in Jesus for our salvation.
Our hearts in their natural state are prone to wander and to set up replacements for God called idols. The Lord has had to address His people over this issue time and time again. Ezekiel once exposed the sinfulness of men's hearts who "set up their idols in their hearts, and put before them that which causes them to stumble into iniquity" (Ezek. 14: 2).
We need to recognize whenever our hearts are moving in the wrong direction. But God is always looking at and recognizing the condition of our hearts. For while man looks on the outside, God is always looking at the heart. In fact, "the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him" (2 Chron. 16:9).
A loyal heart is a heart that is truly bent on pleasing God and being united with Him. The Apostle Paul reminds us that whatever we do, we should "do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men" (Col. 3:23).
Sometimes our hearts are able to be fully engaged but with the wrong thing. In fact, the description of entire kingdoms were based on the kings and whether their hearts were loyal to God or something else. With all the idolatrous distractions and attractions of the world, there were very few kings who kept a loyal heart toward God. But one king that had a heart that was noted for having a heart for God was David. God saw this kind of heart in David, even when he was a shepherd boy taking care of his father's flock. God saw someone who could shepherd his people and called him "a man after His own heart."
A man after God's own heart will have these three qualities:
The PURSUIT of our life
The PURITY of our vision
The PURPOSE of our intentions
Each of these areas reveal a heart that is bent on pleasing God and bringing glory to Him!
May we choose each day to commit everything to God and to treasure Him above all else.
Even David did not always guard his heart but allowed his heart to forget the beauty of the Lord. He prayed for God to create in him a clean heart and to renew a steadfast spirit in him (Psalm 51).
Let us get back to these beautiful words that David once said:
"I have set the LORD always before me;
Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.
Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices;
My flesh also will rest in hope." (Psalm 16:8-9)
Discussion Questions:
1. What are the areas and placeds where you have noticed that your heart is prone to wander?
2. What have you found to be the most important to keep your heart purely devoted to God?
3. What new steps can you take to treasure the Lord over and above any other thing?
"And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart..." (Mark 12:30)
The Lord loves us with a perfect and complete love. Does it not still amaze you when you consider His heart of love toward us? He does not love us with partiality nor does He do anything in part or in halvds. The work of original creation was finished with God's stamp of approval that everything was called "good" and the work of the cross was sufficient with Christ's triumphant words, "It is finished!". This work of the new creation calls us "good!"
Our love is meant to be a response to His love. When Jesus summarizes all of the Law, He calls us to love God with all that we have, starting with our heart. The heart is more than the muscle that pumps blood throughout our whole body, it represents the spiritual center of our being. We are called to love God with all of our heart...in response to Christ's blood pumped into our body.
So what is the heart (as explained in the Bible)?
The heart can be summarized as the inner core of our being, our spiritual state before God,
and the command center of all our desire, direction, and affection. The heart follows what it values the most. Jesus put it this way, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matt. 6:21).
But how can we love God with all of our heart?
There are so many things that we have to deal with on the outside but it is really what goes on the inside of our heart that determines where we are at. As Proverbs 4:23 says, "Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life."
Ever since the Fall of man, our hearts gravitate toward selfishness and can easily deceive us and lead us astray. The Law of God reveals how we fall short of God's holy and perfect standards. But Jesus came to release our debt, give us a new heart, and to recreate us into a new creation.
The prophet Ezekiel said, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them" (Ezek. 36:26-27). This happens when we put our faith and trust solely in Jesus for our salvation.
Our hearts in their natural state are prone to wander and to set up replacements for God called idols. The Lord has had to address His people over this issue time and time again. Ezekiel once exposed the sinfulness of men's hearts who "set up their idols in their hearts, and put before them that which causes them to stumble into iniquity" (Ezek. 14: 2).
We need to recognize whenever our hearts are moving in the wrong direction. But God is always looking at and recognizing the condition of our hearts. For while man looks on the outside, God is always looking at the heart. In fact, "the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him" (2 Chron. 16:9).
A loyal heart is a heart that is truly bent on pleasing God and being united with Him. The Apostle Paul reminds us that whatever we do, we should "do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men" (Col. 3:23).
Sometimes our hearts are able to be fully engaged but with the wrong thing. In fact, the description of entire kingdoms were based on the kings and whether their hearts were loyal to God or something else. With all the idolatrous distractions and attractions of the world, there were very few kings who kept a loyal heart toward God. But one king that had a heart that was noted for having a heart for God was David. God saw this kind of heart in David, even when he was a shepherd boy taking care of his father's flock. God saw someone who could shepherd his people and called him "a man after His own heart."
A man after God's own heart will have these three qualities:
The PURSUIT of our life
The PURITY of our vision
The PURPOSE of our intentions
Each of these areas reveal a heart that is bent on pleasing God and bringing glory to Him!
May we choose each day to commit everything to God and to treasure Him above all else.
Even David did not always guard his heart but allowed his heart to forget the beauty of the Lord. He prayed for God to create in him a clean heart and to renew a steadfast spirit in him (Psalm 51).
Let us get back to these beautiful words that David once said:
"I have set the LORD always before me;
Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.
Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices;
My flesh also will rest in hope." (Psalm 16:8-9)
Discussion Questions:
1. What are the areas and placeds where you have noticed that your heart is prone to wander?
2. What have you found to be the most important to keep your heart purely devoted to God?
3. What new steps can you take to treasure the Lord over and above any other thing?
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