I love to do something called a heart check periodically. A heart check is a check of how tuned in my heart’s affections are toward the things of God. Most importantly, how in tuned my heart’s affections are toward the greatest commandment:
He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'” – Luke 10:27 (NIV)
Why a heart check? Because our hearts are naturally prone to sin. Yep, that’s right. It doesn’t matter how holy we think we are. We’ve all felt that sensationalism toward sin, whether, gossip, watching something inappropriate, or just thinking a wrong thought. It happens naturally.
What does not happen naturally is our intention toward loving God, and loving God’s way. That is something that we have to train ourselves in. Something that we have to make a conscience decision everyday to practice discipline regarding.
We have to practice discipline in not only seeking God, but having a desire to seek him and to hear what he has to say on any and all matters that concern us. We can drown out the voice of God by being too much in tune with things, messages, and distractions that do not concern God nor his way.
Psalms 97:10 – Let those who love the Lord hate evil. He preserves the lives of his saints; he delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
Periodically, the question what has your affections comes up in my spirit and that is when I do my heart check praying things like: Lord, allow my heart to be after the things that concern your heart. Lord, help me to guard my heart according to your will.
King David realized the need for a clean heart praying to God to create in him a clean heart and to renew the right spirit within him. The truth is when we get all out of the way of where God is calling us to be, it doesn’t start just with our action, it actually starts in the heart way before we commit any act. When we allow our affection to take another turn outside of where God called us that is when we began to falter.
Our hearts could easily become concentrated on the wrong thing by opening doors of watching the wrong things on television that feed our hunger for sensationalism, lust, and passion.
Let’s remember the parable of the man with the great investment who saved it and stored it up on earth saying to himself look at what I have accomplished. His affections were all on the wrong thing–his wealth. He did not know that what really mattered was a rich life toward God. He had placed too much attention on what really did not matter allowing what did to slip away. (Luke 12:16-21)
Let’s make sure that our heartbeat is beating toward the things that God designed it for, and that is himself, and his direction for our lives. Heart check time.
Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. – Colossians 3:2-3
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