Yes, But How do you have A Heart Devoted To God?
I know you want to be a woman after God's own heart too, just like Mary was. So how can you move in that direc-tion? Consider these three tried-and-true ways.
1. Choose to Spend Time With God. (This literally 95% of any true Christian's relationship with God if they are being honest and earnest.
Here's how One Anonymous Woman after God's Own Heart put it: "I don't want to be robbed of even one of God's riches by not taking time to let Him invade my life. By not listening to what He is telling me. By allowing the routine, pressing matters of my minutes to bankrupt me of time for the most exciting, most fulfilling relationship in life."
Now, how can you make time in your busy day for
"the most exciting, most fulfilling relationship in life"? For listening to God? For spending time with Him? For letting Him invade your life?
Listen to what my daughters' high school pastor told their youth group about spending time with God. He asked them, "Would you be willing to go on a bit of a fast each day, a time fast? Would you be willing to. . .
Say No Time to some watching Tv time.
Say No Time to Sometimes on the telephone.
Say No Time to actually to hanging out with some of your friends and spend it with God.
Say No Time to sometime spent in the malls.
Any one of these choices dropping one of them gives you an opportunity to say) time to Yes to Sometime spent in God's presence.
And now the question is, would you?
2. Choose God's ways at every opportunity-
"In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight" (Proverbs 3:6) could be the theme verse of this entire book—and of life! This well-loved verse describes a two-step partnership with God.
Our part is to stop and acknowledge God along the way. God's part is to direct our paths and make them straight. This means that we are to consult with God regarding our every decision, word, thought, and response.
This means that before we move ahead or before we react to someone or something, we need to stop and pray first, "God, what would You have me do—or think or say—here?" If you do this you'll find the principles in this poem to be true for you and the choices you make.
Good, better, best,
never let it rest
until your good is better
and your better best.
Something to ponder, Skylights.
Don't you think this practice of stopping and consulting God before acting (and re-acting) like Martha did would help you and me to make the good, better, and best choices in the situations that we confront each day? Don't you think this habit would make us more like Mary?
3. Commit Yourself to God Daily-
In Romans 12:1, the apostle Paul says "to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship." As we consider our desire to commit ourselves to God daily, I want you to begin a new practice this week based on Romans
12:1. I want you to begin committing yourself to God daily. And how could you do that? Here's how one man did it. He wrote down a list of what he called "his rules to live by every day." And what was #1 on his list?
Make a daily, definite, audible dedication of yourself to God. Say it out loud-
"Lord, today I give myself anew to you,"
Why not make such a commitment to God daily for a week? And then why not seek to make it a habit for life?
4. Cultivate a Hot Heart For God-
has a few things to say to us in Revelation 3: 15-16 about our heart condition. Read it for yourself:
"' know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are luke-warm-neither bot nor cold-I am about to spit you out of my mouth.'"
I think it's pretty obvious, according to this scripture, which heart condition God considers the worst! And it gets even more serious as we think about these bone-chilling facts:
1. To be coldhearted means to be unemotional, unconscious of God. Imagine being unemotional about the things of God!
2. And to be lukewarm means to be indifferent.
Imagine being indifferent toward God!
3. But the third heart temperature is to be yours as A Woman After God's Own Heart. You are to be bot-hearted. That means that the heat of your heart and emotion reaches a high tem-perature. That means boiling over! And such high heat is usually paired up with violent activity, emotion, excitement, and passion. It's fiery! As I said, that's the heart of someone— you!-who's committed to God.
This is from Elizabeth George I did not have heart to alter her words as they are clear enough as is except for the secondary definition of what a Hot Heart for God is, my friends.
Heart Response will be next chapter. Secondly hint to cultivating a hot heart for God is to listen to God's Helper and Comforter the Holy Spirit when He is speaking to you in his gentle whisperings, Skylights.
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Simple Short Daily Prayer Books Series Book 2
Non-FictionSummary: More of God's promises and lessons listed out and of course the regular day prayers found on the Short Daily Prayer App. And some more simple prayers from my common book of Prayers. And devotional book reviews too A book two of simple praye...
