It always surprises me how much more God pours HIS wisdom into my MIND—when my HEART is soft and yielded to Him. It is so easy to live with a hard heart because our culture breeds fear—fear of being hurt; fear of failing; fear of dying; fear of rejection; etc. Thus, this fear builds a wall of self-preservation and makes our heart hard towards others AND—hard towards God.
When it comes to our relationship with God, do you know what causes our heart to be even harder?
Well, it’s pretty simple. It is living in disobedience to His Word by either—not doing what’s RIGHT or by doing what’s WRONG. Perhaps, you ask: What is THE standard for right and wrong? Well, if we want to be close to GOD—then GOD’s way—not OUR way—is the standard for right and wrong. Jesus broke it down simply when He said all commandments are summed up into two: Love God; and love our neighbor as we love ourselves.
But, my friend, it’s impossible to obey these two commandments—FROM OUR HEART—unless God is the center of what we love most.
We can determine whether God is the center of our life if we examine how we use the majority of our time and resources. Indeed, Jesus said,
“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Matthew 6:21 NKJV
If God is not our heart’s greatest desire then our heart WILL grow cold and hard and it WILL impede us from receiving God’s wisdom. If you were to inject poison into your bloodstream—your heart will eventually stop working; and if your heart stops working your mind will not work either. In the same way, if Jesus is not at the center of what we love most, that is, where we spend most of our time and resources, then—our heart WILL be poisoned by stuff that doesn’t belong in it. Loving anything or anyone more than Jesus—makes our heart hard because we were designed for a relationship with Him. In other words, Jesus is our spiritual life-blood.
Without Christ at our center, we fall into a downward spiral of foolish thinking which leads to dark, self-destructive behavior. (Romans 1:18-32)
What does this look like? We stop participating in church. The Bible becomes just another difficult book to read rather than God’s personal message for us. The voice of the Holy Spirit is distant and incomprehensible. This culminates in leading us to walk in great darkness, fear, and ultimately destruction. My friend…
If we want God’s wisdom; HE must have our heart.
Paul explained this in the context of the Jewish people having rejected their relationship with God in favor of religious rituals and thus—having COMPLETELY missed the coming of the Messiah they’d been waiting on for at least a couple of millennia. They outwardly obeyed the law but their heart was far from God. He didn’t own their heart—they did, thus…
“…their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart.”
2 Corinthians 3:14-15 NKJV
When we reject Christ as Lord and Master of our life—we have the same problem—our heart is hardened and a veil is placed over our ability to understand God. We are unable to comprehend His wisdom. BUT…we DON’T have to live this way! In the very next verses, Paul wrote:
“but whenever a person turns [in repentance and faith] to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty [emancipation from bondage, true freedom]. And we all, with unveiled face, continually seeing as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are progressively being transformed into His image from [one degree of] glory to [even more] glory, which comes from the Lord, [who is] the Spirit.” 2 Corinthians 3:16-18 AMP
While repentance is part of receiving God’s gift of salvation; it is also NECESSARY for growth after we are born again. Repentance is to make a 180 degree turn away from sin. God will not cozy up to the sin that crucified His Son! If we want to be close to Him and be the recipients of HIS divine wisdom, we must choose to live holy in all areas of our life.
Our choices matter to God.
He died so we could be born again and have the choice to love Him.
Our ALSO choices directly affect our relationship with Him.
God is holy. His Word is perfect. When we love His presence and His Word—MORE than we love anything or anyone else, we live in the liberty of truth and we are being constantly transformed in Christlikeness.
When Christ owns our HEART; our MIND is enlightened to His Heavenly wisdom.
We would love to hear your thoughts about this devotional. Did God speak to you or challenge your daily walk with him? Or is there a topic that you would like Kimberly to cover or expound on? Please share with us in the comments below.
To learn more about Kimberly Faith and the mission of Faith Strong, click HERE.
Out Now – Essential Faith, Volume II. Find it on Amazon by clicking HERE.
To learn more about Kimberly Faith’s ministry Fostering By Faith, click HERE.
2 Responses
Good morning, Thank you so such! I’m struggling a lot these days! Trying to stay in my home, health issues and major finance problems, I’m Not trusting God the way I should. I love and trust in our Lord and Savior. It’s just hard with all our earthly problems. I’m sacred because I feel me slipping down. When I say “If I didn’t have a headache, I would just shut myself”! My so call friends just laugh.
Life with God is a daily journey. We have a choice. Surrender to Him and allow Him to guide us or do life on our own. This kind of makes it simple doesn’t it? I know God does my life much better than I do! Continue to seek Him and He WILL guide you!