Fight For Your Heart
What are the treasures of your heart? What drives it, makes it feel, what does it desire? Over the past month, God has challenged me to take an in-depth examination of my heart, and what I learned shocked me. What if I told you that you’re in the same boat as I am? What if I told you that your salvation is tied to the status of your heart? I was stunned when I realized the truth – the heart is everything. Is your heart in the right place? In Matthew 22:37 NIV, Jesus tells us “Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’”
Love Your God with all your heart.
He also tells us in Matthew 6:21 NIV “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”It is clear from these two verses that our calling consists of two things – to love God with everything we have, and to put our treasure in God, not this world. If you want to know if your heart is in the right place, I would ask you this – who or what do you glorify on social media? Are you posting self-glorifying gym selfies? Are you boasting about how “awesome” your life is? Or are you boasting about the junk that you own? Does it bother you if you don’t get as many likes or follows as you thought you would for a picture? If you’re feeling a little bit convicted right now, I know firsthand what you’re feeling. You’re not alone, and you’re on the right path.Maybe you’re not a huge fan of social media – that’s fine. Let me ask you this, what consumes your mind the most? Thinking about that guy or girl you’re interested in? That career you always wanted? Money, cars, dogs, Starbucks, food? For me it was girls, guns, and motorcycles. There is nothing wrong with any of those things – in healthy moderation.
But where is your treasure?
God doesn’t tell us to go out and pursue a career, a wife or husband, a nice car, or a retirement. God tells us to pursue what is most important, what we should treasure above all else, to PURSUE HIM. Our joy, hope, excitement and thrill in life should be enveloped by our relationship with God. All those aforementioned things should be side thoughts. They really don’t matter in the scope of eternity.I’ve spent a lot of time in my life being the third wheel, or talking with friends who have found the love of their lives. Praise God! That is great, love and marriage are a gift from God, just like singleness is! But here’s my point, when two people have been dating for a while, they begin to fall in love. Over time, their relationship turns from physical attraction to infatuation. They become love birds, and the minds of the lovers gradually become filled with thoughts of each other.
Related Post: A Christian Perspective On Singleness
This is the kind of relationship that God desires to have with us. For us to have God as the true treasure in our hearts – for us to be in constant awe of the marvelous God that we love. This cannot happen unless your heart is right. This cannot happen as long as you have pride, lust, envy, boasting, and selfishness in your heart.
If you’re feeling a little bit inadequate right now, do not worry.
All of us are inadequate. This is the beauty of having Jesus as our savior! No matter how inadequate we are, we can always choose to turn our hearts back to God. The story of the bible is a story of constantly choosing to turn the hearts of man back to God:
“My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Psalm 73:26 NIV
Finally, I leave you with this: Guard your heart. Proverbs 4:23 NIV tells us “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” This is important! We must guard our hearts because the devil attacks the hearts of men and women. God tells us to guard our hearts from things like destructive relationships, pride, sexual immorality, boasting, and covetousness. These things lead to the same place – a destruction of the heart, and the enemy robbing us of our joy.