The heart is a very fickle thing. One day your teenager is in love with the guy of her dreams. The next day hes history. Often our hearts are like that toward the Lord.
Israel was Gods chosen nation, the object of His special love (Deut. 7:78). But the Jewish people had fickle hearts. Time and again they promised their love to Jehovah alone, and time and again they snubbed the Lord and lusted after the false gods around them. Divine punishment was inevitable. It finally came when Israel was carried into Babylonian captivity.
Still, God loved them. He promised, My eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land. . . . I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart (Jer. 24:67).
Think for a minute of how patient God is with us when we sin (Ps. 86:15), how faithful He is to forgive us when we confess our sin (1 John 1:9), and how He gives us a heart to thirst for Him (Ps. 42:12). Let that thought deepen your desire to have a heart for God. Let Him give you that kind of heart today.
Father, let my heart beat with Your heart, let it be consumed with the things that consume You, and let it be set against the things that You condemn. Give me a yearning heart, a longing heart, a loving heart.
Tony Beckett
Israel was Gods chosen nation, the object of His special love (Deut. 7:78). But the Jewish people had fickle hearts. Time and again they promised their love to Jehovah alone, and time and again they snubbed the Lord and lusted after the false gods around them. Divine punishment was inevitable. It finally came when Israel was carried into Babylonian captivity.
Still, God loved them. He promised, My eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land. . . . I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart (Jer. 24:67).
Think for a minute of how patient God is with us when we sin (Ps. 86:15), how faithful He is to forgive us when we confess our sin (1 John 1:9), and how He gives us a heart to thirst for Him (Ps. 42:12). Let that thought deepen your desire to have a heart for God. Let Him give you that kind of heart today.
Father, let my heart beat with Your heart, let it be consumed with the things that consume You, and let it be set against the things that You condemn. Give me a yearning heart, a longing heart, a loving heart.
Tony Beckett
