As I meditate upon those things that hinder me having a heart for God, probably at the top of my list are the subtle and not-so-subtle ways that I have a heart for myself.  

“I love myself supremely because I am the most worthy person I know to be loved and also because I think I can do a better job at it any anyone else.”1 (Vincent)

Until I come to the place where I am not at the top of my own list, I will never love God with abandonment.  I can’t.  

I know that I have shared from Vincent’s book often over the previous few months but grant me to share again.  It has been a life-changing book for me and I want to pass that along.  

One very practical way to nurture a heart for God is to daily rehearse the gospel.  My own experience has been that as I do that, my heart softens towards God and I fall more and more in love with Him.  

Vincent says, “First, the gospel assures me that the love of God is infinitely superior to any love that I could ever give to myself…” And “Second, the gospel reveals to me the breathtaking glory and loveliness of God, and in so doing, it lures my heart away from love of self and leaves me enthralled by Him instead. The more I behold God’s glory in the gospel, the more lovely He appears to me.  … These reminders deliver a one-two punch to my innate self-absorption and leave me increasingly absorbed with Christ.”2

John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

2 Corinthians 4:4 …the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ…

Philippians 3:7-8 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ…

“We make time for what we truly value. We build habits and routines around the things that really matter to us….Reminding ourselves of the gospel is the most important daily habit we can establish…we should create ways to immerse ourselves in these truths every day. No days off allowed…Your audience is your own heart.”3

There are several ways to rehearse the gospel.  Pick one that works for you.   Here are some ideas or find one of your own:

1. Meditate and memorize select Scriptures.  Here are some Mahaney suggests: 2 Corinthians 5:21, Romans 8:31-34, Isaiah 53:3-6, Romans 3:23-26, Romans 6:6-11, 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, and Galatians 2:21.

2. Use a book like “A Gospel Primer” that has 31 reasons to rehearse the gospel and concludes with a nut-shell version of the gospel in prose and poetry.  Great truths, great reminders, all biblically based.  Read it over and over and over.  

3. Sing gospel songs.  There is a great deal of wonderful Christian music out there.  Find a selection of gospel-centered music that focuses on the cross and the gospel.  If you would like suggestions, email me and I will gladly provide some ideas.   

4. Remind yourself of what you deserve vs. what Christ gives you.  I have a list of 55 things and I am just getting started.  

As I rehearse these truths my heart is impacted and God changes me.  You can do this by filling in the blanks.  I deserve _________ but You give me ________________.  

If you have other ideas of how to rehearse the gospel daily, send them along.  If you make a list of what you deserve vs. what Christ gave you, send that along too.  I’m sure you can beat the 55 I have already found.   

Nurture a heart for God by meditating on the truths of what Christ has done for you.  Savor those truths like a good piece of chocolate, extracting every morsel of grace from them. 

Diane

1 Milton Vincent, A Gospel Primer. Pg. 30

2 IBID pg 30-31

3 CJ Mahaney, Living the Cross Centered Life. Pg. 132

When our greatest passion is for Jesus Christ and His glory, our personal issues, problems, circumstances take on a different perspective.  When our greatest passion is not for God and His glory, then by default our greatest passion is for something or someone else – the Bible calls this idolatry.  

Colossians 3:4-6 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming.

What do we do when our greatest passion is not for God?

John Piper’s 2004 book, “When I don’t Desire God: How to Fight for Joy” offers some thought in the first few chapters that I have read.  

“The aim of this book is not to salve the conscience of well-to-do Western acquisition. The aim is to sustain love’s ability to endure sacrificial losses of property and security and life, by the power of joy in the path of love. The aim is that Jesus Christ be made known in all the world as the all-powerful, all-wise, all-righteous, all-merciful, all-satisfying Treasure of the universe. This will happen when Christians don’t just say that Christ is valuable, or sing that Christ is valuable, but truly experience in their hearts the unsurpassed worth of Jesus with so much joy that they can say, “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. (Phil 3:8)” pg. 21.

Our goal in nurturing a heart for God is that our desire and delight in God run deep within our heart and soul, overflowing to those around us, saved and unsaved alike.

Psalm 73: 25-26 Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Psalm 42:1  As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.  

Psalm 63:1,3  O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water….Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.

Psalm 16:11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Tomorrow, we will consider how to nurture a heart for God.

Diane

  

This week we have been considering nurturing a heart for God.  Today is a continuation of yesterday’s review of God’s incommunicable attributes (unique to God):

God is ETERNAL.  God has no beginning and no end.  He always was, always is and always will be.  

Psalm 90:2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. 

Revelation 1:8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

God is OMNIPRESENT. God is equally present everywhere, all the time.  There is nothing that displaces His presence.  

Psalm 139:7-10 Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. 

“Am I a God at hand,” declares the LORD, “and not a God far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him?” declares the LORD. “Do I not fill heaven and earth?” declares the LORD.

God has UNITY (Simplicity)

Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.

Isaiah 46:9 remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me,

John 10:30 I and the Father are one

Sister, this is the God that loves and delights in you.  He is Self-existent, Immutable, Eternal, Omnipresent and One.

Diane

Many years ago, I went through a season of anxiety and depression.  Like most of us, I was looking for a fast way out.  There was none to be had.  I had recently graduated seminary and had been blessed beyond blessed by the Systematics courses that I took.  One of the things that I did was to pull out my notes from those courses and meditate on truths about God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.    I absolutely loved these courses and found my heart filled with praise and worship while I was taking them, so it made sense to me to revisit those truths.  I also knew that suffering takes on a completely different perspective in light of the vastness of God.  

Westminster Shorter Catechism Question #4: What is God? Answer: God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.

As we consider nurturing a heart for God, revisit together with me the unchangeable truths about God’s incommunicable attributes (unique to God).  

God is SELF-EXISTENT (independent) – There is nothing outside of God that is required to sustain His existence.  God simply is.  

Exodus 3:14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.”

Acts 17:24-25 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

God is IMMUTABLE. God does not change.  His unchanging perfection is always reality in the immediate moment.  

Psalm 102:25-27 Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end.

Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today and forever.

Tomorrow, we will continue to look at the awesomeness of God’s unique qualities. 

Diane

I often hear women say they love God but there is just something than hinders them from feeling God’s love for them.  I think for some, if not most people, loving God or being loved by God are more intellectual exercises than an emotional experiences.  

So how can we nurture a heart for God?

It would seem best to begin by considering His heart for us.

1 John 4:9-10 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Romans 5:5-6 …because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

Romans 5:8 …but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

1 John 4:19 We love because he first loved us.

When we stop to consider that there is nothing in us that is naturally attracted to God, we are not inclined toward His glory, we realize we have nothing to boast about.  

Isaiah 53:2b-3, 6  …he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not…All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned-every one-to his own way…

Apart from God Himself putting the desire in our hearts to seek Him, we will not.  

John 6:44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

Are you beginning to appreciate the radical love God has for you?  The depth of the love He has lavished on you?  How can we ignore such amazing, unwarranted, undeserved love?  

Stay tuned…

Diane

Is God on our side or are we on HIS side? This question first gripped my thinking in the midst of a conversation with a deeply hurting friend. Questions, doubts and confusing thoughts were swimming in her head as she openly and honestly shared her heart.

A baby lay dying and, as is always the case when we are confronted with the sometimes brutal reality of sickness and disease, we question and wonder, “What is God thinking?” “Why isn’t He hearing us?” “Why isn’t He on our side and doing as we are begging Him to do?” 

When the pain is at its worst and we fear our hearts will surely break we honestly wonder, “Where are you God?” “Don’t you hear me calling?” “I need you now to do this thing, to take the pain away, to make the baby better, to make sense of this.”

Dear precious ones, God is always, always for us….even when His ways, His words, His answers, His seeming silence make absolutely no sense to us.

As Christians, believers, followers of Christ we all have stuff we believe about God; words we comfort ourselves with in hard times and expectations we have of God based on our understanding and interpretation of His Word. In addition, we have all the sermons, teachings, seminars, conferences, workshops, opinions of others which have helped to shape our thinking of who God is and, whether we like it or admit it, some of it, maybe lots of it, is simply wrong.

God Is. 

God Is. 

God is Self-Sustaining, All Powerful, everywhere present all the time and He does not need me to agree with Him, nor does He need me or you to like Him. He is God! He will do what He will. He will allow what He will and none of it will change Him or the fact that He loves us and He is always up to what is best for us.

My question is will the “stuff” — tragedies, deaths, losses, etc. — change you? Will you be for God or against Him? Will you be on His side whether or not you get what you want?

When He asks us to believe, to trust, to obey, will we do so even when our hearts feel torn asunder? 

“Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” Job 13:15a

Even if He takes what you love and hold most dear…your spouse, your child or children, will you still love Him, trust Him and keep hoping? Will you still be on His side?  Selah

Stephanie

Mark 7:5-9 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!

Every time I read this section of scripture I am grieved at ways we as “good Christians” do exactly as the Pharisees under the guise of “godliness.” We set up standards for dress or behavior that boil down to our preferences or our own up-bringing but are, in no way, rooted in the Word of God.  We are guilty of teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.  God is not concerned with our attire but our heart.  

I can’t say this dogmatically but I am pretty sure there is no standard in Scripture requiring a certain dress code for holiness.  I believe women are commanded to dress modestly and so as not to draw attention to themselves in 1 Timothy 2:9-10  “women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness-with good works.”  The footnote in the ESV Study Bible says, “Paul is not prohibiting the wearing of jewelry…; the principle is that women should not dress ostentatiously or seductively, but in a way that is proper.” (pg 2328).  

I believe we do a grave disservice to brothers and sisters in Christ when we judge their motives.  We cannot assume that those that dress or behave different than we are rebellious or failing to pursue grace or godliness.  

I must admit, it took me some time to get used to a worship leader in flip flops.  It was so contrary to my background, my experience. God challenged my critical/judgmental spirit forcing me to see the man not his attire.  This young man has a heart for God. He leads the congregation in worship with great fervor and delight.  His passion is to ignite our passion for God so that we, together, raise our voices in praise and worship.  I don’t even notice what’s on his feet anymore.  I know there are some out there that think it is down right disrespectful.  So I ask by whose standards?  Is it a biblical doctrine or is it a commandment of men?  If Mark 7 is any indication, God wants us to stop worshiping Him with hearts that prefer man’s traditions and commandments because it isn’t worship at all but merely lip service.  He calls such people hypocrites. May that never be true of us.  

Father, thank you for your forgiveness, purchased by Your own blood that covers my sin of hypocrisy.  Show me the ways in which I put my standards, my preferences, my pet traditions ahead of a heart for You. When I teach as doctrines the commandments of men, make me aware of my error, my sin.  Lord, I pray that I will not only honor you with my lips but that my heart will constantly be drawing nearer and nearer to You in pure unadulterated delight and passion.  

Diane

As you sit down to your devotional time, do you take a moment to contemplate that you are in the presence of the One True God, The Creator and Sustainer of the entire universe?  AND better yet, He desires fellowship with you?  

“God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” 1 Corinthians 1:9

In “My Heart Christ’s Home” – by Robert Boyd Munger, an allegory about Christ being an invited guest in the rooms of a person’s heart, Jesus goes from room to room entering a particular aspect of the person’s life represented by that room.  In the following quote Jesus is responding to the person’s inconsistent visit to the den in the morning to meet with Him:  “He (Jesus) said, ‘The trouble with you is this: You have been thinking of the quiet time, of the Bible study and prayer time, as a factor in your own spiritual progress, but you have forgotten that this hour means something to me also. Remember, I love you. I have redeemed you at a great cost. I desire your fellowship. Now,’ he said, ‘do not neglect this hour if only for my sake. Whatever else may be your desire, remember I want your fellowship.'”  

1 John 1:3 “…and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.”

I know I have shared this in the past, but I believe it bears repeating:  God desires fellowship with you.  The next time you sit down to do your devotions, stop and consider this amazing truth, because it is nothing short of amazing!! 

Diane

I once had the opportunity to have some of my writing critiqued by Christian editors. One in particular was a past Victory Call: “My Neighbor the Evangelist.” It refers to a conversation I had with my then five-year-old neighbor that I believe has the gift of evangelism. In the Victory Call I quoted her saying that she was so glad she would be with God forever some day, but was especially thrilled she wouldn’t go to hell which she explained to me was a burning lake of fire.

Rev. 20:15 If anyone’s name was not found written in the Book of Life he was thrown into the lake of fire.  

She was speaking the truth written in the book of Revelation.

Unfortunately, for the editor of this Christian publication, it was a bit too “negative,” as she put it. She suggested I focus a bit more on the positive, like “heaven.” I guess you could look at it that way. Or…you could praise the Lord for the truth. We are all sinners, and the wages for our sin is death. Oops, I’m also not really supposed to say we…ok, I am a sinner and the wages for my sin is death. But wait a minute… that’s only part of the truth. You deserve the whole truth. You are a sinner and the wages for your sin is death. But the Good News is that we both have had, no, we all have had our debt paid by the spilled blood of Jesus Christ. Believing in that sets us FREE! Oh no, I wasn’t supposed to mention blood either. Are you offended! Don’t be. Be grateful! God loved us enough to send His Son. I love you enough to tell you the whole truth!

Dina

Are we willing to give up all that we want for all that the Lord has?

God has given us all His riches at the expense of His Son. Is there anything that we could have or want to have that could ever surpass the greatness, the richness, the vastness of His mercy?  Is there anything that can hinder or get in our way of grasping this amazing truth, of receiving His love, His healing and His blessing?

The answer to that question is a resounding Yes! There are plenty of things and, one which seems to, more often than not, confront me and cause me to stumble, is rebellion and disobedience. I shudder to think of how true it is and I simultaneously PRAISE THE LORD for His revelation. I thank Him right now that He never ever gives up, nor grows weary in helping His kids to grow up and out of themselves.

Dear one, what are you holding on to? Is it grief? Are you grieving the loss of something – a dream, a relationship, a loved one – in such a way that you hinder the movement of God in your life? In the process, are you choosing not to forgive real and legitimate offenses, and thus, not allowing God to deliver you from where you languish, into His Better and His Best?

I have no idea who you are and I am so sorry you are in pain.  But at the same time, I know that God is faithful to carry you and keep you safe…us safe…under the shadow of His wings, if we let go of all that we want. He is not afar off. He is here, near and He knows exactly how to meet the deepest longing of your soul, of our souls. Will you trust Him?

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.  I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.” Psalm 91:1-2

Stephanie