Searching for a New Heart part 4

God takes action and knows our heart, but it is still our heart. Scripture does provide me with so much hope for a heart that can be renewed! Reading how God works in our lives provides so much hope and comfort to me. Especially in an evil world where our hearts can run wild. I am typing this two days after the bombings in Boston. Watching this horrific tragedy unfold makes me thankful that I am putting my heart in God’s hands. I fear the evil that it can bring. The joy of Boston is the goodness of people. The stories of heroes and compassion touch my soul and my heart. God is Good! I pray for a heart like Lydia from Thyatira. Acts 16:14 tells us of her heart, “One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.” My prayer is for an open heart to hear God! God opens hearts and hardens hearts scripture tells us, so pray for an open heart from God. As I have said earlier our heart leads us and shows us what is important in our lives. Just thinking of the bombers and their hearts should have us all stop in our shoes. Where are their hearts? God has searched them just as he has ours. 1 Chronicles 28: 9 reads, “And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought.” I am shaking. Be Still. Lord please open my heart and make it yours to love and understand. I want to pass the “heart test” found in Jeremiah 12:3 “But you, O Lord, know me; you see me, and test my heart toward you…” I want to pass that test for the Lord. I know there is much work to be done in order for me to pass such a test. The Lord’s testing sometimes is difficult. But he always knows! He knows where our heart will take us. He knows us through our hearts. Psalms 44:21 reveals this secret to us; “would not God discover this? For he knows the secrets of the heart.” I want God to look at my heart and see Jesus holding it in the palms of his hand. I want my heart to lead me to Jesus and his Father. 2 Corinthians 4: 6 shares with us the light God wants to shine from our hearts. “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” I want to be enlightened by my Father, and for that to happen I must also be patient and willing to wait on my Lord. The Lord has work to do in my heart and I must trust that work. In Psalms 27: 14 it is written, “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!” I am waiting Lord and will be still and follow my heart that I give to you. I will wait Lord in order that Jesus has prepared my heart for you. I have opened my heart to be yours….. In closing today I want to share one last verse from 1 Thessalonians 3:13, “so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.” May God’s will be done in my heart and yours!