Many of us have heard the expression…
…“Trust your heart”, it will tell you what to do. The expression is found in many places. Dean Martin (kids, ask your parents or grandparents) sang the song “be smart Only trust your heart”, Jonathan Edwards, Presidential candidate would often close his speeches with, “Trust your heart”. Lolly Daskal wrote in her article about trusting in your heart, “The first answer your heart speaks is the truest. When you tell that truth to yourself, it becomes apparent to the world.”
Therefore, according to the messages found in our everyday life, if we trust in our hearts then we’ll be smart, vote for the proper candidate, and determine truth. We can have the world under control and know what is best, all by “trusting in our hearts.”
The Bible teaches in Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is more deceitful than all else, And is desperately sick; Who can understand it? It also says in Proverbs 28:26 He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, But whoever walks wisely will be delivered.
Paul warns the believer in 2 Timothy 3:1-2 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves… And he also wrote in Romans 10:3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.
The Bible clearly teaches not to trust in our own hearts. The heart of man is deceitful, sick; no one can truly understand it. The Bible warns us to be careful not to be lovers of our own reasoning, for this is the path of establishing self-righteousness, which is not of God.
Based upon the true condition of the heart of man and the warnings of the Bible we must beg the question, “What then, do we do with our hearts?”
God has promises concerning the condition of the heart that is found in Ps 34:16-18 The face of the LORD is against those who do evil, To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears, And delivers them out of all their troubles.
The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, And saves such as have a contrite spirit.
David, in his greatest hour of repentance, wrote, Psalm 51:6-10 Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness, That the bones You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins, And blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart , O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
The Psalmist wrote in Psalm 37:4 Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart .
Jesus taught that the greatest commandment was to love God… Matthew 22:37-39 “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart , with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment.”
Thus the heart that is attractive to God is broken by recognizing our true condition as described above. God longs for us to possess truth in our inward parts. As we delight in Him, He will make us to know wisdom, He will clean us, and will fill us with the desires He chooses for us. As we immerse ourselves in Him we discover a natural response: to love Jesus with all our heart, which is the first and great commandment of God.
He would love to hear us more
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”The Spirit himself bears witness that we are children of God.
There is no sound that pleases me more than that of getting home. Every evening I arrive home and walk in the door and I am greeted by my sons little voice saying, “Dada!” I love to hear the excitement he carries in his voice knowing that his dada is home for the evening. However, the other night I arrived home and walked in the door and there was no “Dada.” I was greatly saddened to say the least. My son had been taken earlier that afternoon to Grandma’s house for the evening so he was not there when I got home. I didn’t like it. I walked in the door fully expecting to be able to hear my sons voice shout in excitement that dad was home. The rest of that evening I waited in anticipation to get to see my son simply so I could hear him say with excitement, “Dada!”
This whole scenario that was taking place got me thinking. I bet our Heavenly Father absolutely loves to hear His name role off of our lips. I wonder if every day He waits in anticipation for that moment when we come to Him and say with excitement, “Abba! Father!” I have no doubt that He does. I am certain that more than anything God wants to hear us talking to Him, shouting His name in excitement just because of His very presence.
I gained a new perspective from this experience. I love to hear the voice of my child. God is our Father and He too loves to hear the voice of His children. Talk to Him!
We are all Called…
In Ephesians 4:1 Paul talks about the Christian’s “vocation,” or “calling.” The Bible mentions several different callings that God gives us as believers:
- There is THE CALL TO SALVATION.
- THE CALL TO SANCTIFICATION, And
- THE CALL TO SERVICE.
Every Christian receives these three calls from God. If we would “walk worthily” of our calling as Christians, then we must be faithful and true to what God has saved us for, and called us to be.
THE CALL TO SALVATION
Everyone who is a Christian at some time in his or her life first heard a calling from God to salvation. God’s purpose is that everyone be saved through faith in Jesus.
THE CALL TO SANCTIFICATION
Having called us to salvation, He also calls us to separation and holy, righteous living. (2 Corinthians 6:11-18) Sanctification has to do with separation, and this separation is subsequent to, or because of, something else. The sanctified person or thing has been chosen first and then separated.
THE CALL TO SERVICE
If we are to walk worthily, we must serve Christ in all that we do. We must do what we do for His glory, and not our own. We are here to serve God, and serve others, and this is the only kind of walk that God will deem worthy of His blessings and power.
We have a Saviour who demands and deserves our very best. We all need to “walk worthily,” of God’s calling upon our lives.
Digital Thingy
We’re in the midst of recording a new worship album / cd / digital download thingy–or whatever they call it nowadays. Anyway, I was in Boise at the recording studio with my daughter Caitlin for a couple of days this past week laying down some guitar and vocal tracks. (As many of you know, Caitlin is getting ready to leave on a year-long mission trip that will literally take her around the world.) As the producer of the digital thingy, I had planned on Caiti singing two of the 12 (or so) lead vocal parts available on said thingy. But what I didn’t anticipate was the ease and beauty with which she sang. This was her maiden voyage in the studio–and a beautiful voyage it was.
Being Caiti’s dad, I was wondering if what I was hearing was going through the ‘father filter’ and somehow sounding better to me than what it actually was. Just then (studio engineer) Dave leaned over to me and said, ‘So she’s leaving? Too bad, I could use her here as a studio singer.’ He was very impressed.
Long story short, she ended up singing five of the leads instead of two. I’m officially my daughter’s biggest fan…
On another note (pardon the pun), I have been unhappy with the name ‘Lighthouse Praise Band’ for quite some time. It sounds too 80’s or 70’s or something. We’re looking for another name to slap on the digital thingies that we’ll be selling on iTunes and elsewhere. Any suggestions? Here are some names that have been suggested already…(if the name you come up with is chosen, we’ll give you a free digital thingy. How’s that?)
- LIGHTHOUSE BRANDED
- LIGHTHOUSE REVOLUTION
- LIGHTHOUSE GLOBAL
- LIGHTHOUSE DEFINED
- LIGHTHOUSE BLEND J
- LIGHTHOUSE EVERLASTING
- LIGHTHOUSE IGNITED
- LIGHTHOUSE RISING
- LIGHTHOUSE PERSUASION
- LIGHTHOUSE IDENTITY
- LIGHTHOUSE SUPREMACY
- LIGHTHOUSE ULTIMATUM
Greg Fadness, pastorg@lighthousecf.org