A Clean Heart

“How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your Word in my heart that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:9-11).

Reaching our full potential begins with a clean heart. A clean heart is one that loves the Lord and desires to obey Him. However, each of us was born with a sinful nature, bent away from God. “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). Pleasing and pleasuring self is man’s normal state.

Salvation changed our hearts and lives: Jesus’ death on the cross paid the penalty for our sin and broke its power over us. By receiving Christ as Savior, we each became a new creation, with a heart sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s leading and a mind that strongly desires to know the Father better. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). We also received the Spirit’s power to deny our selfish desires and obey God. With clean hearts, we can begin to realize the capabilities our loving Lord has given us.

Maintaining your heart: The best way to maintain a clean heart is by meditating on Scripture. It acts like a mirror in which we see ourselves as God does. Through it, we discover the areas where we have been faithful and also the places where we’ve veered from His path. Expressing genuine repentance brings God’s forgiveness and cleansing (1 John 1:9). Cooperating with the Holy Spirit’s transforming work will help us keep our hearts clean. 

Seeking the heart of God: The heart represents the seat of our mind, will, and emotions. When we strive to keep it pure, we will more easily discern the Lord’s plan, submit our will to His, and follow Him obediently. Becoming the person God planned for each of us to be requires an intimate relationship with Him and a desire to obey His Word. Apart from Jesus, we can’t achieve anything of lasting value (John 15:5). 

Developing Spiritual Well-being

Dependency is a normal part of human development. It is the glue that holds relationships together. When we feel consistently loved our emotions show it through our stability. The more we struggle with anger, the more it indicates that our need for love was not met. Through anger we cry the unspoken question, “Why can’t you just love me?”

Feeling unloved breed’s extreme dependency: Extreme dependency allows thoughts and emotions to be dictated by external circumstances. Extreme dependency thinks: “I’ve got to have steady surroundings so I can be stable. I worry about how others treat me.” This we can be sure: His love never changes, His mercy is everlasting.  “My salvation and my honor depend on God; He is my mighty rock, my refuge” (Psalm 62:7).

Developing Spiritual well-being: When your dependency on humans is exchanged for a dependency on strength from God, you begin to learn what it means to have a deeply rooted sense of spiritual well-being. Our dependency for love can be met by accepting God’s great declaration of our worth. “He who pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity, and honor” (Proverbs 21:21). Knowing you can draw upon spiritual strength, you can choose not to let your anger be at the mercy of your environment. Balancing your dependencies can be achieved in part by the following four ways:

1.    Spiritual well-being occurs as we acknowledge our own inability to solve all our own problems. As we admit our weaknesses we take a step toward personal stability. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, that Christ’s power may rest on me” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

2.    Acknowledge the unreliability of other people. This encourages us to accept the reality of the sinful nature in us all. Put your hope in God, not in people. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). 

3.    Yield yourself to the will of Christ and summit your life to His ways. You will no longer be bound by the opinions of others, and your success is inevitable. “Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior, and my hope is in you all day long” (Psalm 25:4-5).   

4.    Spiritual well-being comes by choosing to endorse the healthy characteristics prescribed in God’s Word by setting boundaries and acting assertively when necessary. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him” (Colossians 3:16).  

Measuring your Spiritual Growth

“When I was a child, I spoke like a child; I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:11-12).  

Since our Heavenly Father wants us to mature in the faith, we should stop from time to time and examine our lives to see if we're making progress in this area. Physical growth is fairly easy to evaluate, all you need is a tape measure. But how can you tell if you're growing spiritually?

Desires: Have you noticed that your childhood toys no longer interest you? The maturing process changes our desires in the spiritual realm too. When we're growing, the world's pleasures lose their appeal, while our hunger for God and His Word increases. We are eager to be with Him and share with others how He's working in our lives.

Understanding: When you were young, your perception of the world was very limited. In the same way, we lack spiritual understanding when we're new believers. But in time, we begin to see life from God’s perspective. Trials and temptations become opportunities for growth, and service for the Lord becomes an honor instead of a burden.

Selflessness: The most obvious sign of a child's immaturity is his or her selfishness. He wants his way, and he wants it now! Hopefully that is no longer characteristic of you. A mature believer is submissive to the Lord, willing to wait, and more concerned about others than themselves. How are you doing in these three areas of growth? Maybe it's time to let go of a few childish ways in order to grow into a mature believer. The greatest evidence of maturity is love. When the Lord and other people have first place in our hearts, it's then that we're most like Jesus.

Declaration

“I am a person of vision, purpose, and destiny. I am important to God, created to live a life of significance and influence in my family, in my church, and in my community. I am an overcomer and more than a conqueror. God is not only with me, He is for me. The best is yet to come! Do you believe it? Believe it, think it, and say it!”

Declaration Insights

·        Vision is Hope. Vision is looking forward with great anticipation that something good is going to happen.

·        Our Purpose is growing fully into the likeness of Jesus Christ, bringing Light to the world and glory to God.

·        Unlike luck or chance which is random, God has a divine plan for your life. Your Destiny is the result of being in alignment with the will of God.  

·        Significance means importance, and meaningfulness.

·        Influence is giving your time, talents, and other resources, and using them to fulfill the purpose of God. 

·        An Overcomer is in the process of being free from bondage, prevailing over struggles and weaknesses.

·        You are a Conqueror when you have victory over your enemy!

You make the choice: “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children, and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifices to God” (Ephesians 5:1-2).

God makes the change: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

A Call to Godly Living

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship” (Romans 12:1).

Not unlike today’s world, the apostle Paul lived in an age when sensuality, the pursuit of pleasure, and rebellion against the Lord were common place. He responded by writing letters urging Christians not to follow in the ways of the world. Like those early believers, we are to pursue godliness by the following:

Presenting our bodies to God: Who we are, that is, our total being, mind, will, emotions, personality, and physical body, are to be turned over to our heavenly Father (James 4:7a). Submitting ourselves to the Lord requires a defining decision to give Him complete control and a daily commitment to remain under His authority. By surrendering to Him, we position ourselves for godly living.

Becoming living sacrifices:  The Christian life is built around the concept of sacrifice. Jesus left the perfection of heaven to dwell among a sinful people so He might reconcile us to God. He offered up His life to make payment for our sins (1 John 3:16) and brought us into His family. As believers, we are to follow His example. Paul called it a living sacrifice, because it is ongoing and one that is repeated daily.

Life is full of options: Many decisions involve a choice between following God's way or our own. Maturing Christians will increasingly sacrifice their own desires and embrace His will. A life of godliness is characterized by a heart and mind bent toward the things of God. Although we will live imperfectly, our focus is to be on obeying His will and pleasing Him. Let's commit to becoming more like Jesus, the One who willingly gave Himself to God as a sacrifice for us.