Tag: heart

Binding and Writing – Let Love and Faithfulness Never Leave You

a-Prov 3-3 imageThe YouTruth in Proverbs 3:3

“Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.”

As Christians, we are commanded to make love and faithfulness an ever-present part of our character and witness. This is not news to most of us. We hear this throughout the Scriptures. There is also something implicit in the passage that must not miss. If we don’t do something to prevent it, love and faithfulness will escape from us. It is our job to recognize this and to know what to do to prevent it.

Thankfully, the verse immediately follows with the preventive measures. The instruction to bind them and write them on tablets seem a little obscure, but what they really are telling us is, start from the inside out.

Writing love and faithfulness on the tablet of your heart is, to Christian believers, turning areas of our heart over to the power and leading of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us. It is surrendering our attitudes or actions that are not loving or faithful to God and asking Him to transform us into His likeness in these areas. This is the cool thing about writing upon the tablet of a believer’s heart—we don’t have to do the writing ourselves! We can turn over the writing to God who is (let’s face it) far more qualified to do the writing than we are anyway.

Binding love and faithfulness around your neck is taking what God has written on the inside and moving it out in the open where all can see it. It is translating the loving, faithful desires of the heart into loving and faithful actions that bless those around you in His name. It is not just wearing a cross necklace around your neck, which would seem to meet the literal expectation. It is the outward demonstration of love and faithfulness that allows those around you to understand who Jesus is and how much He loves each of those you interact with every day.

Do Not Let Your Hearts Be Troubled

John 14-1 image

The YouTruth in John 14:1

“‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.'”

A troubled heart. I’m pretty sure you’ve had one of these. In fact, I’m pretty sure you’ve had one of these several times. You may be experiencing an ongoing “troubled heart condition.” If any of these statements is true about you (at least one them is surely true), Jesus has the remedy.

In this chapter of John’s gospel, Jesus is reassuring disciples with deeply troubled hearts. He’s been telling them that He is going to die, one of them is going to betray Him, and that one of them is going to deny he even knows Him. This is troubling news indeed! And then Jesus issues the encouragement above and lays before them the path to a trouble-free heart.

You believe.

This is your path to a trouble-free heart too. Believe in God. Believe in the One who created the universe and all that is in it: majestic mountain peaks, roiling oceans, birds in flight, peaceful evening breezes, all of it. Believe in the God that is eternal and outside His creation, not bound by the confines of space and time, but in all places at all times. Any trouble you may be facing, He saw coming before you were even born. He’s got it. He can handle it. He can guide you through it. Don’t let that trouble into your heart. It will do damage in there.

The path continues. Believe also in Jesus. Jesus is one quite familiar with trouble! He faced betrayal, denial, and a savage death on the cross. And despite these horrible troubles, He overcame them and sits at God’s right hand forever. Therefore, He can guide through your troubles too. He’s “been there, done that.”

God and Jesus are a package deal, part of the Triune Godhead. They are together. They completely know of your trouble, and know the way out of it. Believing in this, shuts and locks the door to your heart when trouble comes knocking.

“I Will Write My Law on Your Heart”

Thousands of years ago, God promised the people of Israel a new covenant. Today, as we begin another new year, our thoughts tend towards new things. Yet, just as with Israel long ago, if we try to match old with new, the hope and promise of the new covenant will fail and the same old, same old will continue.

“But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day,” says the Lord, “I will put my laws in their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

Jeremiah 31:33 (NLT)

The new year brings to mind the prospect of new beginnings. A new start. The hope of shedding those things that have brought us down in the past that we may rise to new heights in the future. Jesus was, among many other things, the bearer of new beginnings for many during His time on earth. We hear many stories of Jesus turning lives around in incredible ways. Why was He able to do this? Can He do this for each of us still today?
Let’s answer these two questions.

Jesus fulfilled God’s promise for a new covenant.
Through the prophet Jeremiah, God promised a new covenant. When Jesus came to earth, lived a sinless life, died and was raised from the dead, He fulfilled God’s promise. But many did not recognize that Jesus was the standard bearer for the new covenant. Why did they miss it when it was right in front of them? For the same reason many today miss it. You see, the new covenant required then, and still requires today, that something else also be new in order for it to work. Without this something else, anything that might masquerade as new is really just the old in disguise, frustratingly ineffective for any who stick to it. Jesus found many bound and determined to stick to the old components and taught them to recognize that the new covenant needed to be truly new in order for it all to work. What He taught them was…

The old covenant is static; the new one isn’t
One day Jesus was asked why His disciples didn’t fast as many other righteous men of the time did. Jesus immediately saw people stuck in the old covenant and used an example to illustrate His point. Just using old rituals (fasting) to enable the new covenant was like putting new wine into an old wineskin. In those days, new wine was placed into goatskin flasks to ferment, which stretched the skins out. Once stretched to their limit, the skins could not be used for new wine again because they would burst, spilling the wine and ruining the skin. The new covenant, like new wine, must have room to grow. The new covenant was not just about rituals, but about a dynamic, growing relationship with God. This required something that was new and pliable that could grow along with it.

Old hearts are hard; we need new hearts that aren’t
Our hearts, in old covenant mode, are described by God as hardened, stony, with sin chiseled into them. (see Jeremiah 17:1) This doesn’t sound like something that can stretch and grow as a relationship with God grows, does it? Trying to approach a relationship with God with a hard heart doesn’t work. It would, if God would allow it, ruin both the covenant and the heart. Imagine the new covenant spilling uselessly on the ground among the shattered pieces of an unyielding heart. God knows the new covenant is far too precious to be placed into such a predicament. The old covenant rituals, such as fasting,  are temporary, imperfect ‘band aids’ that need constant reapplication. They help us know about God, but they don’t fundamentally change hard hearts, they just serve as reminders of our sinful nature and our need for redemption. The new covenant is not an old reminder, it’s a new heart. A ‘new covenant’ heart allows God to live within us, in a personal relationship, so we can exchange the old, distant, knowing about God with intimately knowing God. In response, God puts His will in our minds and writes it permanently on our hearts. From this point forward, our relationship with God can grow and expand to meet all that God has purposed and planned for us.

A rich young man  (see Matthew 19:16-22)
A young man came to Jesus and asked “what good things must I do to have eternal life?”
Jesus recognized the ‘old covenant’ at work immediately. Eternal life is not something earned by good deeds, but established in a personal relationship with God. Jesus steered the conversation to reveal this to the young man. In response, the young man sadly walked away. This new covenant did not fit into a stony heart that the young man was unwilling to open up to Jesus.

Another rich young man  (see Luke 19:1-10)
A man named Zacchaeus sought out Jesus also. Now Zacchaeus had an occupation that required a hard, stony heart—he overcharged his fellow Jews for the taxes they owed to the Roman government and got rich pocketing the difference. After Jesus spent an evening with him, Zacchaeus agreed to give half of his possessions to the poor and to pay back four times what he had cheated out of others. Zacchaeus got it! He entered into the relationship that the first young man turned down. He received the new covenant with a new heart!

Jesus’ new covenant offer still stands today. The requirement remains the same, something else must be also be new— it’s the heart . If we will toss aside our old, hard hearts and accept a supple, tender, new heart, the new covenant can live and grow in us. That’s the truth.

“But this is the new covenant I make with you. I will put my laws in your mind, and I will write them on your heart. You must receive My covenant with your new heart so the you can come to truly know Me as your God. Then  you will be all Mine and I will be all yours!

That’s the YouTruth – I Will Write My Law on Your Heart.

Happy New Year!

Peace I Leave With You

John 14-27 imageThe YouTruth in John 14:27

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

Jesus spent a lot of time encouraging His disciples as the time of His death on the cross drew near. They were afraid of what would happen after Jesus was no longer with them. They had trouble making sense of it. The last thing they felt about the whole situation was peace.

Have you ever been wanting for peace in your life? Does your life seem chaotic and out of control at times? Is now one of those times? If you answered, “Yes,” to any of these questions (and I suspect you answered, “Yes,” to at least one of them), Jesus’ words to His disciples above are words He intends you to hear too.

Peace in life is such an elusive thing if you try to secure it by the world’s means. Worldly peace requires particular circumstances—quiet, security, favorable surroundings, the kind words of those around you, and so on. Jesus knows that you usually cannot control any of these things, just as He knew His disciples couldn’t back in the day. So Jesus does not give you peace as the world gives, and you can praise God for that! His peace originates in eternity, rockets into this world, penetrates through all of the world’s chaos, and takes up residence in your heart. What results is a heart free from fear and trouble, regardless of what the world surrounds you with.

Jesus left this peace just for you. Go into today knowing that this peace has made the trip from heaven and, with pin point accuracy, has landed square in the middle of your heart.

Love the Lord Your God

Deut 6-5 imageThe YouTruth in Deuteronomy 6:5

“Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”

It’s clear from this passage that loving the Lord is not a part-time affair. In fact, it’s not only a full-time affair, but it’s an “all-in” affair. What happens in the activity of real life often looks different. It’s easy to behave differently in the workplace than at church. It’s easy to behave differently on the ball field than in your Sunday School class. Compartmentalizing your life is not God’s idea. You (and I) are called to be full-time, all-in lovers of Him. This is required if you are to call Him “Lord.”

 

The verses in Deuteronomy that follow our passage above give us some key teaching as to how to do this:
“These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”

If you are a parent: Sharing this love commandment (and all of the other commandments for that matter), with your children is a great way to go all-in. Two things are at work here: Children learn by following the examples of their parents and the respected adults around them. Knowing this will encourage you to be a full-time lover of God.

If you aren’t a parent: Share it with any children you encounter!

Regardless of your status as a parent:
Speak! Talk about it! When you get up, let your voice be filled with your love for the Lord. When you are at home, let your love for the Lord be on your lips. When you are out and about, let your words reveal your love for the Lord. End every day verbally expressing your love for the Lord. Remember that we speak with the words of our mouth and the actions that follow them. If a picture is worth a thousand words, an action is worth ten thousand! So include in your love speech, prayers to the Lord for help in walking the walk too.

Make today an “all-in” day for the Lord!

Whatever You Do

Colossians 3-23-24 imageThe YouTruth in  Colossians 3:23-24

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”

Are you looking forward to just another mundane day at the office. Well God has an antidote for that. You inject it directly into your heart and it not only cures workday “blahs,” but returns a huge reward too.

There is a great difference between work done for the Lord and work done for others. Here’s the typical workplace chain of command: you work for your boss, who works for upline managers, who work for executives and shareholders, all working ultimately for your company’s customers. You get paid for the work you do, your boss gets paid, the executives get paid (much more!), and so on. God has a different authority structure and payout plan.

God’s idea is to replace the word “work” with the word “serve,” and the word “boss” with the name of Jesus. When you adopt an attitude of service to the Lord in your work, two incredible things happen. First, your work becomes a “heart thing” instead of just an obligation and a paycheck. Second, because your heart is behind it, you become more effective at the work you do. Jesus gets right in the middle of work that is done whole-heartedly for Him. The work becomes less about what your company pays you to do, which can be very limiting, and becomes more about the eternal reward the Lord promises you and the glorious purpose for which He has you in your workplace.

Work today, as working for the Lord, with the assurances of compensation far beyond a paycheck and effectiveness supplied by Jesus Himself. See what a difference it makes!