Good Morning Friends,
Since God is Love and God lives in the hearts of His people, then love should dwell in our hearts. Where there is no love, then it is evident that God’s spirit is not inhabiting our hearts. But when God abides with us, the love in our hearts is not merely human love, but it is God’s love. When you truly experience the love of God in your life, it will flow through you. How Holy Is You Heart?
Scripture: For you are a people holy to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on earth to be his people, his treasured possession. It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you—for you were the fewest of all peoples. It was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath that he swore to your ancestors, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who maintains covenant loyalty with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, and who repays in their own person those who reject him. He does not delay but repays in their own person those who reject him. Therefore, observe diligently the commandment—the statutes, and the ordinances—that I am commanding you today.
Deuteronomy 7:6-11 (NRSV)
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.
1 John 4:7-16 (NRSV)
At that time Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:25-30 (NRSV)
Message: Just as Israel became a holy people, so too we are to become holy. There is no compromising on this. Just as God chose Israel, so too we have been chosen to experience the love of God. And when God sets His heart on something the outcome is played out in history. That is why the heart of Jesus is not only the heart that shows us love but is itself love. There the Father’s love shines forth. There I know I am welcomed and understood as I am. There, with all my sins and limitations, I know the certainty that I am chosen and loved. Contemplating that heart, I renew my first love: the memory of that time when the Lord touched my soul and called me to follow him, the memory of the joy of having realized there was something more to life. Friends, Christ’s consciousness of a oneness with the Father is the heart of the matter that prompts both a thanksgiving to God and an appeal to mankind to embrace the way, truth and life of Jesus, that frees us from the slavery of sin. We are to embrace the sacred heart of Jesus so that we too might abide in a love that spills out of us and flows into the world around us.
And So, to really know someone one needs to know their heart. And to really determine what makes a person tick, one needs to examine where they spend their time. So, the heart of Jesus based on how he spent his time and with whom he spent his time clearly indicates that the success of a worldly kind was never what he was seeking for himself and for others. Jesus spent time with people that had desperate needs. Look at his ministry and one will see case after case of people who were blind, broke, broken and even buried. It was the hungry, thirsty and outcastes that he sought out and who sought him out. It is clear his heart was holy. And there is a holiness of the heart of service for the least and the lost and lonely.
Pray we accept God’s invitation to turn our heart over to a divine purpose. Pray we realize that when we contemplate the heart of Christ, we are gradually set free to set others free. Pray that we realize that to know Jesus intimately we must know his heart. Pray we like Jesus be willing to place ourselves amid hurting people. Pray we like Jesus desire to help those who cannot help themselves. Pray we like Jesus place few restrictions on those whom we support. Pray we like Jesus are concerned with the needs of individuals more than the traditions of protocol. Pray we like Jesus use opportunities of attending to physical needs of people to earn the opportunity to minister to spiritual needs. Pray our hearts become part of a sacred community of love.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 