Whenever I set aside time to meet with God and hear his voice through his word it never seems to fail that I sense the Holy Spirit directing my thoughts, and feeling how to love the Father and understand him better than I did before. How you approach your time with God and his word can either change you for good or just be white noise in a life filled with many voices.
I have learned over the years to anticipate God meeting me with his thoughts, especially when I open the word of God and “HUNT” for what the Holy Spirit wants me to read and digest. I think it’s easy to sit down with scripture and merely “READ” as if I’m just reading the newspaper or some boring journal. Our attitude makes all the difference in the world.
It takes practice to avoid getting a “STALLED” attitude before reading the word of God because we can approach scripture with the attitude with “I have read this before” and instead of having an attitude of Holy Spirit I want to know your thoughts today. Let me say it again, our approach of how we sit down with God’s word makes all the difference in the world.
When you think about the fact that God has said many times that he is after our heart most of all, you can realize that it’s easy to shield our hearts from God’s influence without realizing it or even intending it, if we are not careful. Scripture says the heart is incredibly “DECEITFUL,” meaning that the heart can, and often does, get twisted. It’s hard to know someone’s heart, but not so with God. The weird thing is we can’t even understand our own heart without the help of God because he doesn’t just look at surface things in our life. He looks at the depth of our heart, which generally is hidden from sight. For that very reason we should want his inspection and input.
The interesting thing is that the prophet Jeremiah communicated to Judah how well they knew the law of God yet failed to truly embrace it by doing it and thus purposefully disobeying God. This is why he stated the famous quote about the heart being deceitful.
Jeremiah 17:9
“The heart is deceitful” above all else and is desperately sick. Who can understand it?
When reading this verse it’s easy to build a doctrine that everyone’s heart is deceitful. That is not what it says if we read the context in which it is written. In context Jeremiah states that Judah knew how to live, but refused to live the way God directed. God stated in the previous few verses that he would bless them if they trusted in him, so not every heart is deceitful, but only those who refuse to trust God, whether directly or indirectly,. Our hearts are only as deceitful as we allow them to be based on how much we honestly trust God or don’t. God always puts forth the promise of blessings for trusting him before he puts the promise of being cursed if we don’t.
Jeremiah 17:7
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD and whose confidence is in the LORD.
A few verses later we find the revelation that God tests the human heart to see what we really believe vs. what we just say we believe. God is not fooled by our religious words or even our religious activities. He looks deeper, at the core of our heart and thus deals with us based on the “REAL” us. From my perspective we want God to be impressed by our religious activities more than by our intent.
Jeremiah 17:10
“I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, to give to each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds.
Going back to my beginning statement about my time in God’s word, I try to consciously adjust my attitude before reading to acknowledge the fact that God is after my heart, and I “WANT” to have a good heart. I adjust my heart to anticipate God’s willingness to help me align with what his word is about to reveal to me, and lo and behold I have an intimate time with God. I sense his desire to help me, not hurt me, and that makes all the difference in the world.
Take for instance a verse in the Old Testament law about our attitude towards our neighbor. God says we should not “HATE” our neighbor because they have done something wrong to us, but we should openly confront the problem with them. The point being: don’t let your heart become bitter, but be open about your conflicts so your heart stays healthy. So often when counseling people I uncover an attitude of bitterness because someone has offended them, but they didn’t address the problem so the offense poisoned their heart .
Leviticus 19:17
You shall not hate your neighbor in your heart; you may surely reprove your neighbor, but shall not incur sin because of him.
God is warning us that if we don’t deal with offenses correctly our hearts become poisoned and we incur sin because of it. Our hearts stay healthy when we follow God’s advice and can become unhealthy when we don’t.
Returning back to the beginning statement about hearing from God when reading his word, I can hear from God from his word as long as my heart is in the right state. If I have poisoned my heart with resentment towards someone because I handled that offense incorrectly, then the first place I need to start before reading the word is to confess my wrong to God. By confessing my sin God doesn’t have to reprove me because I judge myself. The apostle John, near the end of his life at about 90 years old, made it clear how believers should handle sin after being born again. But, many professing Christians neglect that advice then wonder why they can’t get much out of reading the word of God, or hear God’s voice.
1 John 1:9-10
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.
John says stop pretending and start confessing. Pretty simple advice. Then why is it we fail to follow through with what he says? Maybe because we have become somewhat stubborn in our hearts God withholds his intimacy and fellowship, and remains silent when we seek him or pray.
God will speak to me and you when we approach him with humble hearts, refusing to hide anything from him. He will speak to us through his word, or through the Holy Spirit when our hearts are tender and moldable. So the question is: how is your heart condition today?
Questions:
1) When you read God’s word are you approaching it with hunger and humility, or haphazardly? James 4:10 says how and why God moves.
2) Have you regularly submitted your heart for inspection by the Lord? John 16:13 says the Holy Spirit will be our counselor if we listen to him.
May our time in God’s word be filled with expectation,
Pastor Dale
