The Heart

A whole heart, a heart hurt no more.

While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart.

-Francis of Assisi 

For a long time I misrepresented God in my heart. I wanted many things more than I wanted God. At times I have sought attention more than I have sought God. At times I have sought to be in control more than I have sought God. At times I have wanted money more than I have wanted God.   At times I have wanted to be accepted more than I wanted God. 

 I have misrepresented God in my heart. 

I misrepresented God in my heart by wanting what God did not want and by not wanting what God did not want. 

   When I began to know  how much God wanted me, I found it easier to want God and in turn others of you.

John 17:23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

You do not have to continue to hurt yourself. You can turn away form wanting anything more than you want God.. 

Job 15:31 Let him not deceive himself by trusting what is worthless, for he will get nothing in return. 

Proverbs 4:23 Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

 

Mark 7:20-23 He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. 21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

 

 There is nothing God wants more than you. 

Proverbs 27: 19 As water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart.

Matthew 22:37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’

God wants to help you live life by helping you represent Him in your heart (helping you feel the same way towards God and others of you as He feels towards you and others of you). 

Ezekiel 11:19 I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.

 IF you have misrepresented God in your heart, I believe one of the ways to help you better represent God is to help you know the truth about God.   If you have misrepresented God in your heart, God does not want to condemn you. He wants to help you turn back to representing Him in your heart. 

Psalm 119:37 Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word.

Acts 14:15 “Friends, why are you doing this? We too are only human, like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them.

It is far better to be unknown, physically sick, penniless, and to represent God in your heart than to be known, physically healthy, own the whole world yet misrepresent God in your heart. 

 

Deuteronomy 11:16 “Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them,

Joshua 24:23 “Now therefore,” he said, “put away the foreign gods which are among you, and incline your heart to the Lord God of Israel.”

1 Samuel 12:24 Only fear the Lord, and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you.

2 Corinthians 5:12 We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart.

James 4:4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.