Two Hearts in Every Bible
The holy Word of God is so alive that we can find God’s heartbeat from Genesis to Revelation with just a cursory reading. But we only truly find Him when we seek and search for Him with all of our heart.
But that’s where the paradox comes in. How do you seek God with all your heart when you don’t even know your own heart and mind all that well? We’re told the heart is deceitful, made of stone, and is filled with evil thoughts and other sins. It can seem pretty hopeless if you stop with just that knowledge. And that’s where the small measures of grace sown into every man’s heart comes into play.
Romans 12:3b WEBUS
[3] ...think reasonably, as God has apportioned to each person a measure of faith.
https://bible.com/bible/206/rom.12.3.WEBUS
Once we tap into that measure of faith, we can use it just enough to open God’s Word and find out exactly what kind of heart we have. We will see ourselves and our paths laid out in the stories of others.
Proverbs 27:19 WEBUS
[19] Like water reflects a face, so a man’s heart reflects the man.
https://bible.com/bible/206/pro.27.19.WEBUS
But, once we see who and what we are, we should not stop there. If we walk away, we may forget what we saw and miss the blessing of God bringing the changes we desperately need.
James 1:24 WEBUS
[24] for he sees himself, and goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
https://bible.com/bible/206/jas.1.24.WEBUS
BUT IF HE STAYS, THEN...
Ezekiel 36:26 WEBUS
[26] I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.
https://bible.com/bible/206/ezk.36.26.WEBUS
You can pray as King David did for a clean heart, and then you refill it with God’s Holy Spirit and Word. When it’s clean and pure, then you have the promise that you will see God. And from there, it’s a step by step walk, fail, learn, find grace pattern that will take you to an eternity with The One who has promised you a wellspring of life if you’ll just trust Him.
Are you ready to begin?
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Treasure In My Heart
Heart Leaf in The Park in Decorative Frame
Welcome to the first installment of Theologically Thursday. The word of God and the doctrines of serving Him are good for every day of the week, so you may see theologies on other days as well. However, my goal will be to always bring something specifically related to Scripture and Bible study on my Thursday blog posts.
For a simple post about matters of the heart, I started with a search for Scriptures that pointed to the heart, and that brought me to the one in the image above from Matthew 6:21 in the King James’ Version.
Next, I read over Psalm 37:4 where the words from the New King James’ Version say, Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. And then I read in Proverbs 4:23, in the Complete Jewish Bible, the following: Above everything else, guard your heart; for it is the source of life’s consequences.
There are so many Scriptures on the heart that I can see a variety of topics drawing me in for deeper study. For today, however, I will focus on the idea that God is in the business of granting our desires in the same way good parents want to grant the desires their children have. A good parent doesn’t say “yes” to everything–no matter how much the child whines and begs. Instead, a good parent teaches a child why some things are better to desire than others. For example, a good father doesn’t help his son find drugs that will harm him no matter how much the son thinks he wants them to “be cool” to his friends. And, a good mother will teach her daughter to desire a mate that will treat her as a person of value rather than helping her get the attention of the most popular guy in school just because that what she says she wants at the time.
In His holy word, our Abba Father teaches us that if we will focus on Him, seeking Him first above all else, He will grant us our desires. I believe that if our treasures are truly wrapped up in Him, our desires will be for things He desires to fulfill. The Scripture in Psalm 37 may actually mean that God will literally place the correct desires in our hearts.
To make sure our loving Father can freely bless us with whatever we desire, all we need to do is protect our hearts from distractions that seek to turn our thoughts away from God and His love. If we trust in His sovereignty, we will have desires, but we will not covet anything not already in our lives because we will trust that He is our provider of right desires and of fulfilling those right desires.
May we all seek to hide an abundance of treasure from God’s word in our hearts that we will not sin against Him even in our desires, and may He fulfill every right desire of our hearts.
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