Tag: our hearts

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1 Samuel Devotionals

Hollow worship, true worship

Saul and Samuel

Now therefore, please forgive my sin and return with me so I can worship the Lord.”

Samuel replied to Saul, “I will not return with you. Because you rejected the word of the Lord… (1 Samuel 15:25-26)

Come back with me so I can bow in worship to the Lord your God.”

Then Samuel went back, following Saul, and Saul bowed down to the Lord. (1 Samuel 15:30-31)

Father, Saul professed a desire to worship you. But he had little idea what worship meant.

True worship is you having our hearts. All of our hearts.

David realized that:

You do not want a sacrifice, or I would give it;
you are not pleased with a burnt offering.

The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit.
You will not despise a broken and humbled heart, God. (Psalm 51:16-17)

Saul never did figure that out.

Because you didn’t have Saul’s heart, his “worship” meant nothing to you.

Lord, do you have my heart?

Have all of my heart.

Don’t ever let my idea of worship become as shallow as Saul’s.

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Deuteronomy Devotionals

Circumcising our hearts

Old life left behind

Yet the Lord had his heart set on your ancestors and loved them.

He chose their descendants after them—he chose you out of all the peoples, as it is today.

Therefore, circumcise your hearts and don’t be stiff-necked any longer. (Deuteronomy 10:15-16)

“Circumcise your hearts.” What does that mean?

Circumcision was a ritual that the Israelites performed on the men to show that they belonged to God. And yet, for many of them, they were not circumcised in heart.

In other words, their hearts did not truly belong to God.

Instead, they clung to their old patterns of thinking and patterns of life. Patterns that hindered their walk with God.

I recently gave a message in church about how Abram (later renamed “Abraham”) had that exact same problem. And he had to learn to cut these patterns out of his life so that his whole heart could belong to God. (Genesis 12)

God has set his heart on us and loved us just as he did with Abram.

Do we really believe that?

If so, what parts of your life are keeping you from completely trusting him and following him?

With God’s help and the help of his people, let’s cut out those areas of our life so that we can truly love him with all our heart and soul, walking in a way pleasing to him. (12)

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1 Samuel Devotionals

The One who sees our hearts

1 Samuel

Humans do not see what the Lord sees, for humans see what is visible, but the Lord sees the heart. (1 Samuel 16:7)

That’s one of the more famous lines in 1 Samuel, perhaps in the whole Bible.

Nobody in his family truly appreciated David, not even his own father who didn’t even think to call David when Samuel asked to see Jesse’s sons.

But God doesn’t see what humans see. He sees our hearts.

What did he see in David? God doesn’t say, but I think we get some glimpses throughout David’s life.

A heart that trusted God.

A heart that loved God.

A heart that was soft toward God.

David certainly had his struggles with sin, and he blew it terribly at times. But he ultimately came back to God with a repentant heart, seeking to please him.

Lord help me have such a heart. A heart that trusts you. A heart that loves you. And a heart that remains soft towards you.

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1 Samuel Devotionals

When the heat is on

1 Samuel

Saul answered, “When I saw that the troops were deserting me and you didn’t come within the appointed days and the Philistines were gathering at Michmash… I forced myself to offer the burnt offering.”

Samuel said to Saul, “You have been foolish. You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you.” (1 Samuel 13:11-13)

It’s easy to obey God when things are going well. But how about when things are not?

Trials tend to show what’s really in our hearts.

Do we really trust God? Do we really believe his way is best? Do we believe it so much that our first instinct when things get hard is to obey him?

Or do we foolishly go our own way?

Saul’s trials showed what was in his heart.

What do our trials show about what’s in ours?

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Mark Devotionals

What brings a smile to Jesus’ face

Mark

Mark doesn’t tell us so, but I imagine two people brought smiles to Jesus’ face in this chapter.

The first, surprisingly, was a scribe. Surprising because most scribes were hostile to Jesus.

The second was a poor widow.

Why do I think they brought smiles to Jesus’ faith.

They both had something in common. They understood that more than our keeping a bunch of rules, God is interested in our hearts.

For the scribe, he understood that though God had commanded the Jews to give burnt offerings and sacrifices, God desires people who love him with all their hearts, minds, soul, and strength even more.

And God also desires people who values those God values, namely, every single person God has created.

For the widow, she understood that though she had so little to give, God was more interested in her love and trust in him than how much money she put into the offering box.

So many people that day were probably keeping the letter of the law, tithing and giving much more than that widow. But this woman’s heart belonged to God. And Jesus saw that.

May we all bring a smile to our Lord’s face.