Answer (The Heart)
What does God want from us - Our service, our possessions, our time, our rituals? Not exactly, He will receive our service, our giving, our sacrifices etc., but ultimately, what He really wants is our heart.
There is a spiritual battle between God and His enemies, and a competition between the divine and people; Each one is fighting for someone’s heart. God wants our heart - its total Commitment and loyalty, - but so does Satan, the world, our family, our friends, and many others.
When God looks at us, and seeks to, communicate with us, He is always focused of our heart. To God, He examines our lives, our actions, our needs etc. through condition and motive of our heart. To God, when the heart is not right, nothing can be right, but when the heart is right all other things can be valued correctly
Sometimes we think we cannot give God our heart, thinking then we cannot give our heart to those we love, but the opposite is true. God is a giver, and He always gives back more than we can give. I remember when I first gave God my heart, I thought I would not have a heart for anyone or anything else after that, but I had a bigger heart than before. I also had a pure heart. I was able to give my heart to those I loved in a much greater way than before, When we give God our heart, He also gives us a heart of love for others in need of Him.
Psalm 15 talks a lot about the heart, speaking about it what it takes to dwell in the presence of God
Psalm 15:1-2
What does God mean, When He says speaking the truth in our heart? The word “in” could also be used as, “to” for the original refers to both what we speak in our heart, and also what we speak to our heart. Not what our hearts says to us, but what we say to it. “Your heart will lie to you, but you should not lie to your heart.”
To understand this, concept, we must understand the heart.
What dose God say about our natural heart?
Jeremiah 17:9
Our heart is untrustworthy in the sense that it has no discernment. It does not discern between right and wrong, good and bad, spiritual and carnal etc. Often good people end up in relationships, covenants with bad people - why? They let their heart guide them, but the heart attaches itself, without discernment
Jeremiah 17:9
We value the feelings and longings of our hearts, but God is not focused on our feelings. Rather He is focused on our actual needs: salvation, restoration, redemption, forgiveness, healing, and eternal life. We think something is important because it is important to us; but our natural heart values evil just as easily as good. There is no honour of right or wrong in our heart. It is not worthy of grace and hope, but God wants us, and the heart is where it all meets. God focuses on what matters; if He does not have our hearts, He does not have us.
Proverbs 28:26
There is nothing within us as unstable as the heart - it is not dependable. God says, those who trust in their heart are fools.
The heart attaches itself to its surroundings. It cannot discern between right and wrong, or good and evil. It cannot stand as its own judge. The heart is like a body of flesh without bone - with no stability.
Hosea 4:11
Many people have their heart stolen because they did not protect it. The heart cannot protect itself; it has no defense against itself.
Proverbs 4:23
What must we do with our heart?
Our heart does not tell us its issues, it is deceptive and unknown, all it does is desire and attach itself to what it comes into contact with. We must take the initiative to discern its way, so we can keep our heart from leading us into bad situations or even destruction.
Proverbs 4:23
The heart cannot defend itself; we must have an army of guards around it. This means we do not let our heart decide what we do, but rather, we seek wise counsel, learn the truth, investigate what it wants to attach itself to.
Ecclesiastes 10:2
Instead of letting it control us, we must take control of it.
Proverbs 23:26
God will not take our heart against our will, but He will receive it when we present it to Him.
Proverbs 2:2
Ecclesiastes 7:1-7
When we do something, we should do it intentionally with all our heart - not just not let the heart choose what we do. The heart is tremendously important, when there is no heart in it, there is no value either.
Matthew 6:21......
