The main theme we need to get out of committing our hearts to God is we need to be fully focused on Him. This devotional reading looks at how our words, thoughts, and actions must totally focus on God with thanksgiving and praise.
Nuggets
- Words and meditations are two different types of prayers, but they are connected.
- We must follow all God’s laws with all our hearts.
- Our hearts must be filled with thanksgiving and praise.
This is the last devotion in this series that we will focus on our hearts. Because of that, these are the potpourri verses.
They sort of go together, but they sort of don’t.
Let's Put It into Context
To read devotions in the Habitual Holiness of Heart and Life theme, click the button below.
Here is a running list of nuggets for the theme.
Devotions in the Commit to Grow Our Habits study
Here is a running list of nuggets for the study.
Focusing Our Words and Thoughts on God
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer” (Ps. 19: 14 ESV)
Words and meditations are two different types of prayers, but they are connected.
We think of words as uttered speech. That isn’t all they are, though.
Thoughts are unuttered words. We just say them in our minds.
We have uttered and unuttered prays. Meditation is consciously and systematically thinking of a chosen subject. In other words, it, too, is unuttered speech. Hutchings called them mental prayers.
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Our words and thoughts don’t stop there, though. If we spend a significant amount of time thinking of something, won’t our actions stem from that?
Horder put it this way. He wrote, “Yet the words we utter have a separate existence, and most powerfully affect the thoughts of our mind. Language has a reflex influence upon our thoughts. Thought is revealed in speech, but speech reacts upon thought.”
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Hopefully, our words are pleasing to God.
Voysey called lying the worst sin of the mouth. I can see that, as he said, “There is an amazing amount of careless falsehood spoken.”
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Lying is rampant, and much of it is careless.
We say God’s laws are moral laws because they look at His heart. They are not a checklist for us to determine if we’ve done the do’s and not done the don’ts.
God’s laws show us His character, making them moral laws. Our character is to imitate His, making them more than just a checklist.
Let’s look at it this way. God, Who is pure in heart, accepts us, who are wicked in heart, when we do and say acceptable things with the correct motives. Reynolds stated that we should consecrate our hearts to God. Consecration is the process of being set apart. Consecrated is the result of being set apart.
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What David is saying here is that there are two kinds of prayers: spoken and unspoken. We have to do both.
We have the ability to change our speech. We can choose whether or not something is going to come out of our mouths.
We need to choose that our words be pure, even if it is a sacrifice. A sacrifice is choosing God’s Will, even when we would rather do something the opposite way.
When we meditate, we contemplate the situation in which we find ourselves — and where God wants us to be. Reynolds wrote that it keeps us focused on God rather than immediately doing whatever we think is appropriate. This shows our humility to God.
We need to keep our thoughts and our words — spoken and unspoken — focused on God.
Focusing Our Will on God
“With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments!” (Ps. 119: 10 ESV)
We must follow all God’s laws with all our hearts.
We choose whether or not we are going to follow God’s laws and commandments. God wants us to choose to follow them.
The Homilist had an interesting take. We have the power not to follow divine law.
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I hope worldview people don’t think that makes us as powerful as God. We aren’t.
All that says is we have free will. Free will is the ability within us to make decisions, which determine actions that produce character.
What God wants is for us to seek Him. The last thing we should want is a relationship with Him based on the good things He can do for us.
God wants a totally committed relationship with us. Our hearts have to be totally submitted to Him.
Focusing Our Praise on God
“I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds” (Ps. 9: 1 ESV)
Our hearts must be filled with thanksgiving and praise.
Meyer noted that this psalm is about Jesus’ death. “But the Lord sits enthroned forever; he has established his throne for justice, and he judges the world with righteousness; he judges the peoples with uprightness” (Ps. 9: 7-8 ESV).
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When we praise God, it must be complete. The praise in our hearts has to totally focus on Him.
Unfortunately, Jowett thought we have problems with that. He wrote, “That is the note that is too commonly silent in our religious life. We rarely gather together for the supremely exhilarating business of praise.”
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We cannot divide our attention between God and the world. Our Will, intellect, and feelings must be fully focused on God.
Making the Connections
What is the connecting theme? We have to focus all of our hearts on God. We can’t say we can depend on ourselves. We can’t keep pet sins.
We have focus everything on God.
How Do We Apply This?
- Consecrate our thoughts to God.
- Consecrate our conversations to God.
- Consecrate our objects of worship to God.
- Praise God in gratitude for what He has done for us.
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Father God. We love You. We praise You for saving us from our sins. We totally commit our lives to following You. Amen.
What do you think?
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