It is also in our hearts that we find darkness and lies and fear.
In essence life springs from our hearts. In Proverbs 4:23 we read, “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”
Every part of our lives is an outworking of our hearts. It is why it is so important that we get our hearts right with God. That we align our hearts with God’s heart.
The Psalmist in Psalms 119:2 says it well, “Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart.”
It is in pretense that we come to God with only part of our hearts. For we are told over and over that to really walk with God we must do so with our Whole Hearts.
In fact, in Mark 12:33 we are told that even when we make sacrifice and offerings if these things are not done in whole-hearted love for the Lord they mean nothing.
“And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
Earlier in this same chapter of Mark we read that the greatest commandment of all is, “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” Mark 12:30
Sometimes when we have known about God for a long time, we can think that to bring a part of ourselves is okay and that we can get away with a half-hearted life. But this doesn’t work.
And so we also find in the Bible many promises of God to help us with our hearts. For instance in Jeremiah we read this, “I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.” Jeremiah 24:7
Faith then is simply giving over our whole hearts to God, accepting the love of Jesus Christ to change our hearts, and then living out the truths about God through our hearts and lives.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
In Ezekiel we read a great verse and another amazing promise from God,
“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” Ezekiel 11:19
What we find is that we give God our whole heart and then God takes care of our whole heart.
We ourselves cannot change our own hearts. There are parts of our own hearts that we cannot even access and do not even know about. But God does. And so it is God who takes on the care of our hearts when we invite and accept and live in the life of Jesus Christ given over for us.
And in Romans 8:26-28 we find more of God’s promise for us,
“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,for those who are called according to his purpose.”
Because God can take all of our lives, the good and the bad, we offer up to the Lord all of our lives. Even the bad things, even the sad things, even our broken places and our failures are used by God for good when we give them over to the Lord.
So we simply bring God all of us. We do not hide any parts of our hearts. We do not need to hide in fear or pretend that we are something we are not. Rather we come in honesty and openness and with our whole hearts.
And when we do this we will find that God is big enough for all of our lives and our hearts.
“God we come to you today in the name and the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. We acknowledge you as Lord and Saviour of our lives. We say yes and amen to your work in our hearts. We thank-you.
Today we bring to you the things we have been afraid to bring to you. We bring you our bitterness, we bring you our hatreds, we bring you our fears and our worries.
We declare our trust in you God and declare your love for our hearts. Thank-you Jesus for dying for our hearts, for our lives, and being the one who carries all our darkness and the evil in our hearts. We give you our whole hearts today. Amen”
May you be encouraged today to not keep any parts of your hearts from God. For God passionately loves you and will make you whole and strong from the depths of your heart.
“I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart; before the gods I sing your praise.” Psalm 138:1