| Love For God - Part Three | | Print | |
| July 21, 2006 | |
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What if I have become half-hearted? This is a critically important question that needs to be answered. But first it would be beneficial to recognize how our hearts lose that whole-heartedness. Although this may not be true in every situation, I have seen the causes of most half-heartedness is rooted in two things: 1) What we allow to go into and be stored in our hearts that should not be 2) We fail to fill our hearts with righteous, good, and spiritual thoughts and attitudes Let\'s take a moment to examine both. What goes in We are commanded to guard our hearts (Proverbs 4:23) Are you guarding the condition of your heart? Jesus admonished those who were more concerned about outwardly appearing righteous than they were about their hearts. (Mark 7:15-23) The purity of a container is in direct relation to what is permitted to go into that container and be stored there. Our hearts are like spiritual receptacles. When we sin but refuse to admit our condition, confess and repent, then we allow the guilt and shame to build up in the heart. The shame and guilt are put there by God to motivate us to deal with our sin righteously. However, if we repeatedly sin without confession and repentance, we eventually will become hardened and numb to the shame and guilty feelings. The condition of the heart is always determined by what is permitted to go into it and remain there. We understand this principle with our own bodies. Thousands of people have quit smoking because of this principle. They saw the consequences of putting cigarette smoke into the lungs and decided that they needed to stop. We need to have the same concern about sins being permitted to go into and remain in our hearts. All of us sin. (Romans 3:23) That is not what hardens our hearts. It is how we deal with our sins that will determine the effect it has on our hearts. How does the Lord want us to deal with our sins? God instructs us in James 5:16, \Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.\ You\'ve heard the expression, \Confession is good for the soul.\ It is not just good for the soul, God says that it is necessary for the healing to occur. What happens if we procrastinate confession? In Job 36:13, God says, \the godless in heart harbor resentment\. Many times resentment and bitterness are the result of keeping our sins or the sins of others constantly on our minds and in our hearts for too long and not dealing Biblically with them. Unconfessed and unrepented sin acts as a hardening agent in our hearts. We have probably used certain types of superglue that required the mixing of two tubes of ingredients. One of the tubes contained a hardening agent for the glue to set. That is what happens to our hearts when we sin and we then mix it with a failure to confess and repent. Sin by itself cannot harden our hearts. But if you mix the refusal to confess and repent with the sin, then the hardening begins and we lose that whole-heartedness toward God. Satan\'s other tactic to capture our hearts is to discourage us to the point that we give up; or by convincing us that leaving for a while may actually help our hearts to change for the better. Have you ever seen quitting be a spiritual answer for someone\'s half-heartedness? Quitting is never the answer when you find yourself lukewarm and half-hearted. Satan also tries this manipulation: \Maybe you are half-hearted because you have been away from sin for so long. Maybe you just need to go back to sinning just a little in order to appreciate God\'s grace again.\ Ever heard something like that from the demons? You may ask, \Well, what is the answer?\ I have needed to answer this question for myself over my 37 years as a disciple. At different points in my life, I realized that I had become half-hearted toward the Lord. So I have needed to answer the question, how do I become whole-hearted again? In reading passages like James 4:6-10, I realized that the solution to overcoming half-heartedness is not complicated. In reflection, I remembered what had gotten my heart soft in the first place. I recognized that it did not get soft by being bitter about my circumstances or blaming others for my sin. (That\'s what made it hard to begin with) It did not get soft by bitterly talking about others\' sins against me. It started getting soft when I stopped feeling sorry for myself and realized that God had been trying to get my attention; it softened when I decided to focus more on my own sins and how much I had sinned against others, rather than dwelling on other\'s sins against me; it softened more when I started taking responsibility for my own sinful actions and attitudes instead of shifting the blame to others or my circumstances. Each time, I began to see my heart get soft, renewed and transformed. Think back over your life when your heart was initially the softest and most whole-hearted toward God. What led up to that whole-heartedness? Wasn\'t it after you had started reading and studying God\'s Word with someone else prior to becoming a Christian? Wasn\'t it when you started to be open about your sins that you discovered your heart being convicted and becoming malleable toward God and others? Wasn\'t it after you stopped feeling sorry for yourself and started taking personal responsibility for your sinful actions and attitudes that you saw your heart most open to God? God\'s Formula So if you were to do that again, do you think the same transformation in your heart would take place? I can personally testify that it would. Reading and studying God\'s Word (Hebrews 4:12, 13), being open with others about your sins (James 5:16), and focusing on and taking personal responsibility for your own sinful attitudes and actions rather than others\' (Acts 2:23, 36) lead to a godly sorrow that brings repentance (2 Corinthians 7:10,11) that once again, brings whole-heartedness. This \formula\ has worked on my heart and the hearts of thousands of others time and time again. This is the exact formula that Jesus told the disciples in Ephesus who needed a heart transformation: \You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.\ (Rev 2:4,5) Jesus confronts them with their hearts. He doesn\'t pull any punches. \You have forsaken your first love.\ But notice what Jesus\' answer was to their problem. He does not tell them to quit on Him or His Church because they were being half-hearted. He does not say repent and feel the things you did at first. What does He say? He tells them to remember, repent, and do the things they did at first. Remember, repent, and do. Wow, could the solution to such a significant problem as half-heartedness be that simple? Sometimes the simplest answers are the most profound. Remembering what Jesus did; remembering what our lives used to be like; remembering the hopelessness and frustration of our sins and separation from God. Then repenting of our own sinful attitudes and actions--taking responsibility, not shifting the blame, not looking at everybody else--just yourself--radically changing your attitude toward God and others. Then doing the things you did at first: reading, studying, praying, worshipping, confessing, and denying self. Remembering + Repentance + Doing = Wholehearted Devotion (agapao). It\'s that simple. If at one time you were whole-hearted in your devotion to Christ, but now see yourself as half-hearted, I encourage you not to allow yourself to be overwhelmed with discouragement or hopelessness. The solution is right here in God\'s Word. You can restore that same whole-hearted devotion that you once had through following God\'s formula: Remembering + Repentance + Doing is guaranteed to restore your heart to whole-hearted devotion to Him. The Greatest Motivation Loving God is the greatest commandment and therefore, is the greatest motivation for living for Him. We have seen that God cares that our hearts are connected to what we do for Him. He is spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. (John 4:24) But we have also seen that the love He commands is not a feeling, but a complete and unswerving devotion that goes beyond momentary feelings. We have learned that when we focus more on pleasing God and less on pleasing ourselves, then we really are obeying the greatest commandment. And we have let God\'s Word tell us what it takes to get back a whole-hearted commitment to Him--His spiritual prescription for conquering half-heartedness. Truly, God has given us all that we need to love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength and have the greatest motivation. |