Friday, April 18, 2014

The heart of God

Isaiah chapter 1 always gets me. The heart of God is buried within it. God's constant cry is "Come!" He has cared for us and brought us up; He has done so much for us and yet we forget Him. We are quick to leave Him and run in the other direction when the going gets tough. We are quick to leave Him behind because our flesh is too convenient at times and we just settle for what it offers instead of seeking the life-giver Himself. God is tired of our numerous so called "sacrifices" we make in His name when our hearts themselves are so far from Him. He calls what we have to give "vain offerings." Our sacrifices and offerings have become an "abomination" and a "burden" to the Lord for our hearts are far from Him. Life can be such that we become consumed with the mundane. The routines of life take over and we forget to have a relationship. A real, living relationship requires spending actual quality time with each other and not just doing things for the other person. The problem could be that we sometimes forget that God is a Person. We find that in Scripture, God often gets to the root of the problem and in Isaiah 1, He says the problem is the heart and the head. Both the head and the heart are not sound; the head is sick and the heart is faint. We must be watchful to keep our heads and hearts right before God. The Bible says that it is out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Let this passage challenge us to make it a practice to routinely examine ourselves before the Lord to see if we are still walking faithfully and rightly with Him. He has given us life and done so much for us. The only gift we can truly give to Him is a life humbly lived for Him in return for who He is to us. May the Lord bless your walk with Him and may you find yourself to be more and more in love with Jesus Christ every day.