What's Important
Many people walk through this life and they don't really know what is the most important thing! For some, it's all about money. Others, stuff! Yet others, work! I just being optimistic, there are those people who live their lives on a quest for things that I will not take the time to write out. However some people are near what is most important, they focus on their relationships with family and friends. I would like to suggest that the most important thing that we can seek after (next to Christ of course) is our own hearts! Not out of selfishness, but out of love.
"Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." Proverbs 4:23
Christ makes His home in our hearts! Let me for a moment compare the heart to a house.
Christ comes to the door and knocks. We answer and welcome Him in. We ask Him to sit and stay for dinner. As we leave to prepare dinner, He begins to look around and check things out. We come back and see Jesus "snooping around" and ask Him not to do that. After dinner, you invite Jesus to spend the night, you prepare a room for Him to sleep in and show Him where the bathroom is, and then you both head off to bed. When you wake up in the morning you smell coffee (or if you are like me and don't like coffee, maybe tea?). You wonder, what is Jesus doing. You rush downstairs to find Jesus has already made your favorite breakfast for you. After breakfast you have to go to work (or school) and tell Jesus that he can stay, but he can't go into certain rooms in your house. When you get back, you find all the rooms that Jesus was allowed to go in spotless. You are amazed and feel a little guilty that you didn't keep it that clean. As time passes, Jesus keeps asking to be allowed into these rooms that you have not allowed Him into before. They are so dirty, so messy, you don't want Jesus to see what is in there, you just want to keep it to yourself! (Incase you haven't figured it out, these rooms are our deepest darkest secrets, the ones that none knows except for us) Finally after years of living with you, Jesus comes to you and pleads to be let into those rooms. You understand that it is only out of love that Jesus comes to you, but you don't want Him to see it. You reluctantly let Him in and immediately the shame hits. You fall to your knees and ask for His forgiveness, you offer to help Him clean, but He says, "No, this is my job! You stay with me and let me do the work. It will come to an end, it will be painful to go through all of this, but you must stay with me and let me work." You sit there ask Jesus goes through your whole life, everything! Then after what seems like it was months, Jesus comes over and puts His hand on your shoulder and says, "Look, All clean, you are spotless, may I make this my home and reside with you?"
What do you do at this point? You have 2 options! 1. Well, on second thought, I really liked it the way it was, but thanks for cleaning it. See you later. Or 2. Yes Lord, take it all, I give my whole home to you. It is yours!
Christ wants our hearts to be clean and HE is the only one that can clean them, but we must let Him do it!
"And the Lord said: 'Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men, therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden." Isaiah 29:13-14
We need to come before God with our hearts! Head knowledge is good, we need that to understand what God is trying to tell us, but we must come to Him with our hearts!
"For although they knew God (head knowledge), they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him (no heart), but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen." Romans 1:21-25
One last thing on this....Where does love come from?
I believe that it comes from the heart, we cannot love another if we have not love in our heart.
Jesus gave us two Great commandments...."Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and the second is like it, Love you neighbor as yourself." Luke 10:26-28
Just think about how many expressions we have that deal with the heart: Heartless, Have a heart, heartaches, brokenhearted, bravehearted, blackhearted, hearts of gold, heart-to-heart, lighthearted, my heart's just not in it, and we love with all of our hearts.
I like how Brent Curtis puts it in The Sacred Romance, "For above all else, the Christian life is a love affair of the heart."
Let Jesus set your hearts free, free to live a full life, free to love!
Dave
"Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." Proverbs 4:23
Christ makes His home in our hearts! Let me for a moment compare the heart to a house.
Christ comes to the door and knocks. We answer and welcome Him in. We ask Him to sit and stay for dinner. As we leave to prepare dinner, He begins to look around and check things out. We come back and see Jesus "snooping around" and ask Him not to do that. After dinner, you invite Jesus to spend the night, you prepare a room for Him to sleep in and show Him where the bathroom is, and then you both head off to bed. When you wake up in the morning you smell coffee (or if you are like me and don't like coffee, maybe tea?). You wonder, what is Jesus doing. You rush downstairs to find Jesus has already made your favorite breakfast for you. After breakfast you have to go to work (or school) and tell Jesus that he can stay, but he can't go into certain rooms in your house. When you get back, you find all the rooms that Jesus was allowed to go in spotless. You are amazed and feel a little guilty that you didn't keep it that clean. As time passes, Jesus keeps asking to be allowed into these rooms that you have not allowed Him into before. They are so dirty, so messy, you don't want Jesus to see what is in there, you just want to keep it to yourself! (Incase you haven't figured it out, these rooms are our deepest darkest secrets, the ones that none knows except for us) Finally after years of living with you, Jesus comes to you and pleads to be let into those rooms. You understand that it is only out of love that Jesus comes to you, but you don't want Him to see it. You reluctantly let Him in and immediately the shame hits. You fall to your knees and ask for His forgiveness, you offer to help Him clean, but He says, "No, this is my job! You stay with me and let me do the work. It will come to an end, it will be painful to go through all of this, but you must stay with me and let me work." You sit there ask Jesus goes through your whole life, everything! Then after what seems like it was months, Jesus comes over and puts His hand on your shoulder and says, "Look, All clean, you are spotless, may I make this my home and reside with you?"
What do you do at this point? You have 2 options! 1. Well, on second thought, I really liked it the way it was, but thanks for cleaning it. See you later. Or 2. Yes Lord, take it all, I give my whole home to you. It is yours!
Christ wants our hearts to be clean and HE is the only one that can clean them, but we must let Him do it!
"And the Lord said: 'Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men, therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden." Isaiah 29:13-14
We need to come before God with our hearts! Head knowledge is good, we need that to understand what God is trying to tell us, but we must come to Him with our hearts!
"For although they knew God (head knowledge), they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him (no heart), but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen." Romans 1:21-25
One last thing on this....Where does love come from?
I believe that it comes from the heart, we cannot love another if we have not love in our heart.
Jesus gave us two Great commandments...."Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and the second is like it, Love you neighbor as yourself." Luke 10:26-28
Just think about how many expressions we have that deal with the heart: Heartless, Have a heart, heartaches, brokenhearted, bravehearted, blackhearted, hearts of gold, heart-to-heart, lighthearted, my heart's just not in it, and we love with all of our hearts.
I like how Brent Curtis puts it in The Sacred Romance, "For above all else, the Christian life is a love affair of the heart."
Let Jesus set your hearts free, free to live a full life, free to love!
Dave
posted by Mark 1:17 at 5:20 AM
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