September 18th blog post

Our Spiritual EKG   
   

"The Lord says: 'These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me'."  Isaiah 29:13

This verse is quote from Jehovah Rapha, God the healer, our Great Physician.  It always serves as a reminder for me to take some time and check my spiritual heart condition.

I know it was a prophetic message that we saw played out in Christ's time but it always draws me to a place I need to be, on my spiritual bended knee.  I need to check my heart and ask myself and answer some honest questions:

1. Do I read my bible because I have a desire to draw near to God and grow in my faith and relationship with him on a daily basis or is it a part of a routine that I find myself begrudgingly doing out of obligation? 

2. Is prayer something I look at as a way to hear from the Lord, as an intimate time set aside to love the Lord and grow in my communication with him or is it something that is "me centered", that I tend to look mostly at as a means to an end, an avenue of help in my time of need but little else?

3. Is the Lord's guidance and boundaries something that I seek and want for my life because I trust Him, I know He has my good wrapped in them, and because I long to live for Him or are they like a large lunch buffet where I look them all over and pick and choose which ones suite me at the moment and leave the rest for others to take?

4. Are my acts of service (either in the church or in my community) done from a heart that knows the love, grace, and faithfulness of the Lord and desires to live that out so that others can see and experience God's glory for themselves or are they done for my own pride and feelings of value, for my own glory?  Could they possibly be done out of feelings of obligation rather than acts of loving kindness?

5. Have I allowed myself to experience, remember, and know deep within, the undeserved mercy and forgiveness the Lord gave me despite my acts of wrong and do I actively pass that forgiveness and freedom along to others or do I harbor bitterness, anger, hurt, unforgiveness, and judgement because of past (or present) wrongs done to me (or possibly even by me)?

6. When I go about my day do I seek to walk in step with the spirit and strive to live a fruitful life rooted in the spirit of God or do I mindlessly go about my day with my agenda, purposes, and achievements to obtain?

These are some of the questions I have to ask myself in order to make certain that I am not just talking about faith and trust in God but that I am actually living it.  I want a heart that is all in for the Lord.  I fail often at making sure that my heart is close to the lord and when I stumble in life by making mistakes, hurting others, being lazy, acting selfish and on and on and on.... when I fail I need to remember that I have a God who knows me, loves me, forgives me and is there to be my help and strength.  I need to look to him and lean on him to help my heart be where it needs to be, close to him!!!

I want a heart that God knows and declares is close to him.  When I speak and praise and serve and draw near to the Lord I want it to be from a heart that is in love with the Lord and is on track to be spiritually healthy.  I think it is time to make sure that I start giving myself a heart check daily so that my life can be lived to the fullest, what a joy that would be!