My Heart

     God gives Himself to me completely. He lives in me. He loves me unconditionally. All that He asks is that I give myself completely to Him.
     But I want to hold on to small pieces still. I want to watch what I want on TV. The show isn't THAT offensive. I want to spend my money the way I want. After all, I earned it and it is mine. And I give Him some if it. Right? Small things.
     But it is like a wife telling her husband, "so what if I date another man occasionally. I don't let him kiss me. We don't fool around. It is just fun."
     God plainly tells His people in the Old Testament " for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods." God doesn't want just a piece of our heart. He won't even be satisfied with "almost" all our heart. No husband would be willing to share his wife's heart with another; why should God?
     Jesus explains why when He says that you can't serve two masters. You will always love one and hate the other. The heart can't be divided. It can only truly belong to one person. Either God owns all your heart, or he owns none of it.
     That doesn't mean we have to be perfect. We will always fall short in this life. We still live in flesh and blood fallen bodies, and we have an enemy (Satan) who seeks to corrupt any way he can.
     When we give God our heart completely, we give Him authority to change us from the inside out. It is no longer us simply trying to be a better person. That never worked before and still doesn't. Only His radical work in us brings about the desire to really live for him. We still have to choose to obey, but He give us the power to. "He whom the Son sets free is free indeed." We finally become free to obey and love God.


     Does He really have your heart?

Regret

     Regret is the cousin of false humility. It has the appearance of godliness, but no real substance. It denies both God's power and His nature. It claims that our failures are too great and strong for Him to forgive and to deal with.
     It continues to bring our focus back on us and our performance.
     Instead, we must choose to focus on God, on His grace and mercy. With them, He overcomes our weakness. He helps us to live rightly. He helps us to live in relationship with Him.