The charge of our devotion this morning is simple. Start your day with a faithful heart.
The Bible says in Deuteronomy 6:5, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength."
So today, let's ponder on how important it is to have a faithful heart as believers and then we'll pray together.
The topic of the heart 🫀 is one that goes really deep and one that permeates scripture.
It just seems that there is something about the heart that is very necessary, very instrumental to our Christian walk with the Father God.
The verse we have started with today says what many verses of the scripture reiterate.
We have heard it before. It has been said over and over again without fail.
The need for the human heart to love the Lord, its place in the Godman relationship.
The truth is without the heart, without the involvement of our heart, we have no relationship with God.
Our beliefs, our confessions, and our Christian walk would be hollow and without true convictions.
God desires our hearts. God desires the totality of our hearts. He desires a faithful and true heart.
In fact, we have instances in scripture where the blessings of the Lord have come upon a man because of the state of their heart.
1st Samuel 16:7 says, "But the Lord said to Samuel, do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature because I have rejected him.
For the Lord sees not as man sees.
Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart."
First Kings 15:5 says, "For David had done what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and had not failed to keep any of the Lord's commands all the days of his life, except in the case of Uriah the Hitittite." When scripture speaks of David, the Bible says he had a right heart before the Lord, and he was a man after God's own heart.
In fact, you will find that this testimony is true of all the kings who ruled well in Israel.
The first testimony about them is the state of their heart. They had a right heart towards God.
So what does it mean to have that faithful heart that the Lord desires?
A faithful heart is a clean heart. A heart that loves God. A heart full of devotion towards God.
A heart determined to do His will.
A heart that regards God, that trusts in God, a heart that is true. It is a heart that is dedicated to God, and that is committed to following HIM.
A heart that is sincere and a heart that is right before HIM.
And this is the type of heart we must have as believers.
But the truth is that this type of heart doesn't just fall on us as believers.
Having a faithful heart starts with a choice. But it's a choice you can't fulfill by yourself.
You cannot fulfill that choice without a walk with God, without a relationship with HIM. When we get saved, we are cleansed and we are purged of our sins.
And when God looks on us, we are indeed clean. But it doesn't stop there.
There is a need for us as Christ's disciples to maintain the state of our hearts. It doesn't maintain itself. It is not automatic.
And the funny thing about this is that it can be a slippery slope. Sometimes if we aren't mindful, it's easy to get other things mixed in with God.
And this affects the state of our hearts.
When the Bible spoke of the men and women of the Bible who had a right heart, who had a faithful heart, they were noted as people who walked with God.
People who made this walking and fellowship a daily and consistent delight.
It was not once in a while staying devoted to God, but it was a daily exercise.
One of David's prayers recorded in Psalm 19:14 says, "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer."
This was David's heart's desire.
And he didn't leave that desire to chance. He made a prayer of it.
This verse goes directly into what David's heart would look like when God looked upon it. When the meditations of a man's heart are faithful towards God, when his thoughts do not go against God, such a man can have nothing but a faithful heart because he trains his heart to stay that way.
This same David prayed and asked the Lord to create in him a clean heart.
The Bible speaks of the apostles as men that honoured the hours of prayer and had a deep fellowship with the Holy Spirit. 🗣️: Holy Spirit I know you are inside me.
The Bible spoke of these men in regard to exercising their hearts to look towards God to forgive men.
The Bible hardly ever accords a faithful heart with a man who didn't have a walk with the Lord.
As believers, first we must determine to have such a heart every day. We should have it as a waking thought.
We must desire to be faithful. And above all, we must also determine to be a people that will have daily communion with HIM.
A daily communion keeps our hearts tender and it helps us to continually have a faithful heart towards God.
It is also needless to say that once you decide to live with a faithful heart towards God and have a life of consistent fellowship with HIM, your intimacy with God increases and your awareness of HIM will be stronger.
There is hardly any mention in scripture of God not being happy with people who are faithful towards HIM. He pours out His blessings on them continually. Such a man was Abraham. He had a faithful heart towards the Lord. And the Bible spoke of the greatness of this man and how God blessed him and how he was called the friend of God. And all this came about because he walked with the Lord with a faithful heart.
Friends, it is never too late to start that journey of having a faithful heart towards the Lord. It is never too late to start working on our devotions.
I remember the first time l started being aware of the state of my heart towards the Lord. I knew that something had to change, something had to be different. and I made a decision to redevote myself to him.
It is a decision you can also make today.
A decision we can make right now. In fact, the first thing you need is that choice.
And then after the choice, a determination to walk the walk. Determine to start with a faithful heart from this day forth and see how things change dramatically and drastically.
Do it and see what it does to your faith life. And the best part, God helps you through it.
If you know this message has touched you this morning, and you know that you have made that choice in your heart, if you know your heart has never been right with the Lord, it's never been 100%. You've always kind of been on and off, but you want to start now, then I congratulate you.
I congratulate you on that choice because there is no better time than right now. Please join us this morning as we pray to reconnect our hearts back to the Lord so that we can together start our day with a faithful heart towards the Lord.
🙏🏽 : Father God, in the name of Jesus Christ, I say thank you this morning for your Word. Thank you for another message from the pages of scripture. Thank you for helping me to see this truth this morning. Thank you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Father God, this morning I ask for grace, mercy, and YOUR help. I know my heart hasn't always been fully with YOU. There have been many times when my attention was divided, my devotion weak, and my heart unsteady before YOU. I've struggled to stay faithful and devoted.
Distractions, worries, desires, and life's cares have pulled me away from consistent fellowship with YOU.
I confess this honestly today.
I don't want to pretend or act like I've always been intentional in my walk with YOU when I know I haven't.
Father God, I admit today that I haven't always made YOU the priority YOU deserve.
I haven't always been mindful of walking faithfully with YOU every day. Sometimes I've loved the idea of devotion more than the discipline it requires.
Sometimes I've wanted the strength from fellowship with YOU without being consistent in it.
Sometimes I've wanted the fruit of a faithful heart without guarding it carefully.
But today, Lord, I choose to be intentional.
I choose to turn my heart fully back to YOU. I choose to stop living casually in my relationship with YOU.
Please help me make my heart right before YOU.
Search me, Lord, and deal with anything that's not in line with your will.
Remove whatever takes up too much space in my heart. Remove anything that competes with YOUR place in my life.
Help me keep a faithful heart. Help me be true, Lord. Help me be sincere in my walk with YOU, not just outward in my devotion. I also pray this morning for the grace to keep a steady and consistent devotion, to stay close to you. Father, even though Ihave chosen to follow you, I know I can't do it alone. Human strength isn't enough to live a life truly devoted to YOU. Good intentions alone won't keep me faithful.
So l ask, Lord, help me stay connected to YOU. Help me stay rooted in your presence and your word. Help me keep you close in my thoughts, desires, decisions, and actions. Strengthen me as I live a life of devotion and consecration.
Strengthen me as I choose fellowship over distance, surrender
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