Whole Heartedly
The Pharisees and the Sadducees as they were testing Jesus asked Him a
question (Matthew 22:36-40), “Master, which is the great commandment in the
law? Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great
commandment. And the second is like to it, you shall love your neighbor as
yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets”.
Nothing defies a man worse than his own heart. The heart signifies the total
inner self, a person’s hidden core of being. When one’s heart is turned toward
God, He promises to make it sensitive to divine things, renewed and purified
(Ezekiel 36:25-27), “then I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be
clean from all your filthiness and a new Spirit will I put within you, and I will take
away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I
will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you shall
keep My judgments and do them”.
Jeremiah also prophesied in (Jeremiah 31:33) that God’s law shall then be
written on the heart as the inward guide and motivation. And Hebrews 10:16-17
confirms by saying “this is the covenant that I will make with them after those
days, says the Lord, I will put My law into their hearts, and in their minds will I
write them. And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more”.
We are to fill our heart with the word of God (Deuteronomy 11:18-19), says
“therefore shall you lay up these My words in your heart and in your soul, and
bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlet between
your eyes. And you shall teach them your children, speaking to them when you
sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, when you lay down, and when
you rise up”. This sounds like all the time.
David is known as a “man after God’s own heart” (I Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22).
As Samuel was told to go up to Jesse’s house and anoint a new king, Samuel
was looking on their outward appearance, but God told him “look not on his
countenance, or on the height of his stature, because I have refused him, for
the Lord looks on the heart”. Jeremiah 24:7 says “then I will give them a heart
to know Me, that I am the Lord Yahweh; and they shall be My people, and I will
be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart”.
God tests us to see what is in our heart Jeremiah 17:10, says “I the Lord
Yahweh search the heart, I try the reins (the emotions), even to give every man
according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings”.
God is searching to and fro to kind someone whose heart is perfect toward Him
(II Chronicles 16:9), says “for the eyes of the Lord Yahweh run to and from
throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose
heart is loyal to Him”. Jeremiah 29:13 says “and you shall seek Me and find Me
when you shall search for Me with all your heart”.
Now even though David was known as a man after God’s own heart, we know
that David was not perfect in all things, he sinned with Bathsheba and even
killed her husband when he was trying to cover up his affair, but when
confronted, he repented (Psalms 51), he asked God to created in him a clean
heart, and renew a right spirit within him. David wrote many of the Psalms and
in 9:1-2 he declared “I will praise You, O Lord Yahweh, with my whole heart, I
will show forth all Your marvelous works. I will be glad and rejoice in You, I will
sing praise to Your name, O You Most High”. Also Psalms 138:1-3 echoes the
same. David says in Psalms 40:8 “I delight to do Your will, O my God, yea,
Your law is within my heart.
Psalms 119:10-11 the Psalmist wrote “with my whole heart I have sought You;
oh let me not wander from Your commandments. Your word have I hid in my
heart, that I might not sin against You”. David also prayed “let the words of my
mouth, and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord
Yahweh, my strength and my redeemer” (Psalms 19:14).
The true heart draws near to God, loves Him with all its intellect, feeling and
will; James 4:8 says “draw near to God and He will draw near to you”. In this we
have to make the first move. Hebrews 10:22-23 says “let us draw near with a
true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil
conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the
profession of our faith without wavering, for He is faithful that promised”.
The work has been done by God, we only have to acknowledge and accept it (II
Corinthians 4:6), “for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ”. God gives strength, renewal, grace, peace and joy
to the heart (Philippians 4:4-7).
Such transformation involves believing the gospel from the honest and good
heart that provides fruitful soil for the word of God. Remember that Jesus said
the word is seed and the soil is our heart. As we plant the word of God in our
heart we become whole heartedly. Colossians 3:23-24 says “and whatsoever
you do, do it heartily as to the Lord, and not to men. Knowing that of the Lord
you shall receive the reward of the inheritance for you serve the Lord Christ”.
We are warned not to harden our hearts; one hardens their heart by not
believing the word of God; the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty
years, because they didn’t believe God when He said go in and process the
land that I have given you, be courageous, I will be with you (Hebrews 3:7-12),
says “wherefore as the Holy Spirit says, today if you will hear His voice. Harden
not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the
wilderness. When your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My works
forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation and said. They do
always err in their heart, and they have not known My ways. So I swear in My
wrath, they shall not enter into My rest. Take heed, brethren, less there be in
any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God”.
Let us strive for the goal of being called a man after God’s heart, remember
that God is not a respecter of persons and as a man thinks in his heart, so is
he.
Study by: Harriet Bond
Date: June 2, 2009
The Pharisees and the Sadducees as they were testing Jesus asked Him a
question (Matthew 22:36-40), “Master, which is the great commandment in the
law? Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great
commandment. And the second is like to it, you shall love your neighbor as
yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets”.
Nothing defies a man worse than his own heart. The heart signifies the total
inner self, a person’s hidden core of being. When one’s heart is turned toward
God, He promises to make it sensitive to divine things, renewed and purified
(Ezekiel 36:25-27), “then I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be
clean from all your filthiness and a new Spirit will I put within you, and I will take
away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I
will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you shall
keep My judgments and do them”.
Jeremiah also prophesied in (Jeremiah 31:33) that God’s law shall then be
written on the heart as the inward guide and motivation. And Hebrews 10:16-17
confirms by saying “this is the covenant that I will make with them after those
days, says the Lord, I will put My law into their hearts, and in their minds will I
write them. And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more”.
We are to fill our heart with the word of God (Deuteronomy 11:18-19), says
“therefore shall you lay up these My words in your heart and in your soul, and
bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlet between
your eyes. And you shall teach them your children, speaking to them when you
sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, when you lay down, and when
you rise up”. This sounds like all the time.
David is known as a “man after God’s own heart” (I Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22).
As Samuel was told to go up to Jesse’s house and anoint a new king, Samuel
was looking on their outward appearance, but God told him “look not on his
countenance, or on the height of his stature, because I have refused him, for
the Lord looks on the heart”. Jeremiah 24:7 says “then I will give them a heart
to know Me, that I am the Lord Yahweh; and they shall be My people, and I will
be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart”.
God tests us to see what is in our heart Jeremiah 17:10, says “I the Lord
Yahweh search the heart, I try the reins (the emotions), even to give every man
according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings”.
God is searching to and fro to kind someone whose heart is perfect toward Him
(II Chronicles 16:9), says “for the eyes of the Lord Yahweh run to and from
throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose
heart is loyal to Him”. Jeremiah 29:13 says “and you shall seek Me and find Me
when you shall search for Me with all your heart”.
Now even though David was known as a man after God’s own heart, we know
that David was not perfect in all things, he sinned with Bathsheba and even
killed her husband when he was trying to cover up his affair, but when
confronted, he repented (Psalms 51), he asked God to created in him a clean
heart, and renew a right spirit within him. David wrote many of the Psalms and
in 9:1-2 he declared “I will praise You, O Lord Yahweh, with my whole heart, I
will show forth all Your marvelous works. I will be glad and rejoice in You, I will
sing praise to Your name, O You Most High”. Also Psalms 138:1-3 echoes the
same. David says in Psalms 40:8 “I delight to do Your will, O my God, yea,
Your law is within my heart.
Psalms 119:10-11 the Psalmist wrote “with my whole heart I have sought You;
oh let me not wander from Your commandments. Your word have I hid in my
heart, that I might not sin against You”. David also prayed “let the words of my
mouth, and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord
Yahweh, my strength and my redeemer” (Psalms 19:14).
The true heart draws near to God, loves Him with all its intellect, feeling and
will; James 4:8 says “draw near to God and He will draw near to you”. In this we
have to make the first move. Hebrews 10:22-23 says “let us draw near with a
true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil
conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the
profession of our faith without wavering, for He is faithful that promised”.
The work has been done by God, we only have to acknowledge and accept it (II
Corinthians 4:6), “for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ”. God gives strength, renewal, grace, peace and joy
to the heart (Philippians 4:4-7).
Such transformation involves believing the gospel from the honest and good
heart that provides fruitful soil for the word of God. Remember that Jesus said
the word is seed and the soil is our heart. As we plant the word of God in our
heart we become whole heartedly. Colossians 3:23-24 says “and whatsoever
you do, do it heartily as to the Lord, and not to men. Knowing that of the Lord
you shall receive the reward of the inheritance for you serve the Lord Christ”.
We are warned not to harden our hearts; one hardens their heart by not
believing the word of God; the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty
years, because they didn’t believe God when He said go in and process the
land that I have given you, be courageous, I will be with you (Hebrews 3:7-12),
says “wherefore as the Holy Spirit says, today if you will hear His voice. Harden
not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the
wilderness. When your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My works
forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation and said. They do
always err in their heart, and they have not known My ways. So I swear in My
wrath, they shall not enter into My rest. Take heed, brethren, less there be in
any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God”.
Let us strive for the goal of being called a man after God’s heart, remember
that God is not a respecter of persons and as a man thinks in his heart, so is
he.
Study by: Harriet Bond
Date: June 2, 2009
