The Lukewarm Deceptionনমুনা
With all my heart
The Bible is full of scriptures about what brings joy to God’s heart and serving Him with all our heart is at the top of the list. Lukewarm, half-hearted, carnal, and lazy all break God’s heart. Considering all our amazing God has done for us, how can we do less than serve Him with all our heart?
Sometimes we wonder why troubles come into our lives. In Deuteronomy 13:3, God explains, “For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”
Joshua commanded the people of Israel in Joshua 22:5-6 to be very careful to observe the commandments and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded them, to love the Lord their God, and to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and to cling to him and to serve him with all their heart and with all their soul. God’s Word is not ambiguous in the least but is crystal clear on what God desires from us.
We all love the scripture in Proverbs 3:5 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” If only we practiced it! Why do we so easily turn away from God’s ways that work every time and in every place?
God promised us in Jeremiah 29:13-14 that when we would seek Him, we would find Him when we seek Him with all our heart, and He promised that He will be found by us. Isn’t it amazing that the Lord will make sure we find Him, when we seek Him with all our heart?!
In Mark 12:30, Jesus said that the most important commandment in all the Bible is, “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” And so, in Ephesians 5:18-19, when we worship, we will “be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all our heart.”
Reflect on: Colossians 1:18, “Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead, So he is first in everything.”
I invite you to join me in this prayer: Father God, in the name of Jesus, I turn away from nominal, half-hearted, lukewarm Christianity. I will no longer walk according to the ways of this world under the rulership of Satan. I submit my entire life to Jesus Christ, the uncreated Creator of the universe, and the One who loved me so much that He gave His life for me. It is only by the power of the Holy Spirit that I can be transformed. Jesus Christ truly is the supreme value, and has a right on my life, and it’s my honor to ask Him to be my Lord and master in everything. Hallelujah, amen!
If you have been impacted by this study, and if you want to follow Jesus with your whole heart and make a difference in this world then dive into the last command that Jesus gave us in Matthew 28:19-20 and tell everyone you meet how glorious He is.
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About this Plan
Half-hearted, lazy, who cares? Don’t you hate that attitude? Jesus hates it more, as He declared in Revelation 3:16; but how easily we fall into the deception that makes Him want to vomit us out of His mouth! Let’s look at ways we become lukewarm without realizing it, and how to move with our whole hearts into the joy and security of knowing and being known by Him.
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