A ‘heart for God’ reflects the heart of God! Is that a true statement?
It is if that hearts love for God is based on an obedient knowledge of God’s heart as revealed in His word!
It is if the experiences of ones life reflect decision-making, interacting with others, a serving, prayerful, Spirit-filled life-style resulting from feeding on the revealed story of God and His grace found in the Bible.
As I think of the message from God’s Word that supports and ‘anchors’ my walk of faith, it is this over-all call of God to know Him, and to grow into His holy likeness! 1 Peter 1:15,16 says “..just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
A careful student of the Bible will be touched by the message that our God is “holy” and He desires that we be holy also. But to us holiness in the human experience might smack of a “holier than thou” attitude. How we have let Satan lie to us!
Of course the word “attitude” is a key in this discussion! But, we must be careful not to buy into the idea “we can never be perfect…God’s grace will cover it… so why even try?” (Romans 6:1) We are told in many ways, “be holy, as I am holy.” God would not tell us this if it were impossible.
My constant prayer for myself and my loved ones is that we will develop hearts for Him that grow out of becoming more and more acquainted, through the word, with His nature, His ways! We know that Jesus told the apostles when He walked among them that He showed them the ways of His Father! So there we find we have four books of the New Testament that feed our knowledge of what our holy God is like!! (And you can think of many other scriptures that describe His nature…Psalms being filled with such!) But for us to be informed that the life/nature of Jesus Christ reveals what our God is like…..how tragic if we treat it lightly, and miss the blessing of knowing our God more intimately!!
One stellar example of the concept of knowing God and having a heart for him is found in Genesis 39:9, where Joseph (after being sold into slavery in Egypt by his jealous brothers, and now entrusted by Potiphar, his Egyptian owner/master, with running his affairs) is tempted by this man’s wife to sleep with her! Instead of Joseph saying, “I can’t do this…..Potiphar would kill me!!,” he said, “How then can I do this wicked thing and sin against my God?!” Oh, if only our young people coming up in the Lord would understand this as a blessed “key” to resisting the temptations in their lives today! A feeling of the presence of God in our lives is a huge anchor in keeping us strong and focused on the goal of our faith, the salvation of our souls! (1 Peter 1:9)
When we can grasp this true ’anchor point’ of Christian faith, that our decisions and actions must be based on our relationship with our God, our Maker, then we will truly be guided by Him. We will be able to recognize the “way of escape” every time we are tempted beyond our own human ability to cope. The One who has shown us the Father, who is our redeeming sacrificial Lamb, pleads at the Father’s side so we can know that our salvation is securely anchored for all eternity!
Prayer:
O Lord, God, our Maker and the One who loves us and is love, thank You, thank You for the assurances You give us in Your Word! Make us so aware of Your presence in our lives that the Spirit of Christ will always prompt us to take Your way of escape when we are tempted and lured by calls to us from the dark side of this human existence! I pray You will strengthen our young people for faithful and close experience of Your presence in their lives! Like Joseph may they have consciences so filled with Your presence they will be strong to resist evil! Please save your children all over the world now and forevermore without the loss of a one! In Jesus precious name, Amen
Jan McCoy
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