‘Give me your heart’
“Wherever your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will also be.” Matt 6:21.
When a person falls in love aspects of their behaviour will begin to change. For example they may find they enjoy doing things that they used to avoid doing. Perhaps they might display an extravagant generosity towards the person they love. They may even be prepared to make themselves look silly just so that they can please the person they are in love with. Love compels people to change.
To an extent God’s Church is like this. The Church is a community of people whose lives have been completely transformed by the love of Jesus. God has always sought after a people who would willingly surrender their lives to Him and gladly choose to trust Him in everything, so that the whole earth will be filled with His glory.
In the book of Joel, we discover that God’s people are living in total rebellion to Him yet in His abundant grace and mercy He urges them to turn back to Him. He calls them to give Him their hearts in order that He may forgive them and bless them and fulfil all the wonderful the plans He has for their lives (Joel 2:12).
I believe that God’s intention for His creation – which is to see the restoration of all things in heaven and earth brought together under the rule and authority of Christ (Eph 1:10) – will come about through a Church that is completely abandoned in heart to Jesus.
Giving your heart to God is not about being sentimental or feeling emotional toward God. Neither is it about giving Him your full attention for a few hours a week when you attend a church meeting. When you give your heart to Jesus it means that you voluntarily relinquish or hand over all your authority over your life to Him. In this way He will have full reign in your life. You no longer call the shots, He does.
Jesus taught His disciples that “unless you obey God better than the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees you can’t enter the Kingdom of God at all.” (Matt 5:20) They would honour God with their lips but in reality their hearts were far away from Him. Of such people the prophet Isaiah said, “their worship amounts to nothing more than human laws learned by rote.” (Isaiah 29:13-14).
Although submitting to Christ expresses obedience, God is looking for a people that will obey Him with their hearts. We have an obligation to do as Jesus commands, but a people who are motivated by love will delight in doing so.
Jesus deserves to have a people who are continually living in the overflow of the Holy Spirit. He deserves to have a Church that is totally unashamed to proclaim the Gospel of His Kingdom. He deserves to have a radical people who no longer live for themselves but live to glorify the name of Jesus at any cost. He WILL have this people whom He desires and His Church will be established as Chief of the mountains (Isaiah 2:2-4).
Spend time with God. Give yourself to worshipping Him. Read His Word and pray to Him. Fellowship with the Church, preach the gospel, heal the sick, move in the authority and power of Christ to see signs, wonders and miracles. This is the Church. This is who we are and this is what we do. Give your heart to Jesus today and everyday. Amen.
Ben Matheson
