PROVERBS 23:26 – My son, give me your heart . . .
THEME OF THE DAY. THE TESTING OF OUR HEARTS. Every sincere Christian comes to a fork in their spiritual road when they feel the tug of the Holy Spirit calling them out to full surrender and consecration to the Lord. We will hear the still small voice of today’s scripture, “Give me your heart.” It often is preceded by a crisis point in our walks with Him when we are disgusted with spiritual indifference, tired of spiritual sameness and status quo, long for the reality of Jesus Christ, not just knowledge about Him, and we cry, “Lord, I really want to know You. Revive me. Take my life, my heart. I long to surrender fully to You and Your will.” And when we get there, it will be tested. God will test our sincerity; the seriousness and genuineness of the giving of our heart to Him. Here are a few of those tests God may send our way to see if we really mean business with Him.
First, He will test the chief person of affection in our lives. Jesus said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). Now be careful here. The Lord of love is not using the word “hate” in a mean-spirited and malicious manner. He is using it in comparison. The challenge He is giving is this; no human relationship is to have more affection given to the individual or individuals than affection to Him. God will not accept a heart of competing loves. Ironically, the quality of our affection in our human relationships only blossoms to its fullest potential when we keep our affection for Jesus Christ supreme and unrivaled. And yes, God will test us to see if we love our earthly family more than Him. Be careful not to make the wonderful gift of family an idol in our hearts. Remember, an idol is anything or anyone who is above God on the throne of our hearts.
Next, He will test the chief objects of affection in our lives. The Apostle John writes, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15). Friends, if we get more excited about an event or activity on the weekend than the weekly attendance to the Lord’s house on the Lord’s Day, He doesn’t have our whole heart. And when we have free time to invest, if we would rather give it over to worldly pleasures than spiritual enjoyments and investments, God doesn’t have our whole hearts. Please don’t misunderstand me. There is nothing wrong with time away, activities on the weekend, or worldly pleasures, but if they are our first delights and get more time than the Lord, His house, His people, His Word, and prayer, then our hearts are divided and God accepts no divided heart.
A final test God may choose to place upon us to see if our heart is wholly given over to Him will be where our chief desires are located. One of the clear signs God has the whole heart of His people is their daily longing, yes, daily longing, for heaven and to be with Him. Christians living Christ-centered with Him on the throne of their hearts are homesick. They want to be in heaven, not to be in the place, but to behold and be with Him who took their heart to heaven – the Lord Jesus. We may know if God has our heart by where our thinking is primarily located – heaven or earth.
So, when God says to each of us, “Give me your heart”, may we immediately be able to say, “Here it is, Lord” and then validate the sincerity of our giving by having our affections and desires chiefly on Him.
PRAYER: “Father, help me to see Your love with such clarity that all my heart is surrendered to you.”
QUOTE: “When God’s heart is so given over to us, how can we not give ours over to Him?”