Gaining the Heart of GodExemple

Day Six: A Changed Heart

When we fail, we need to see that God is still working at the heart of our lives, inviting us into his most extravagant abundance. God is inviting you to go with him now. He wants you to come beyond the domesticated faith that you’ve been stuck in and follow him. Jesus’ way is so far beyond and so much better than anything you could ever cook up for yourself.

He’s the God of thirty, sixty, hundred times more reaping than you sow. You can make your heart ready—step out and walk with this God of abundance. Your heart is both the means by which you receive from God and the only thing that could hold you back. Jesus’ call to you is to break up your unplowed ground.

We need God to show us the things to plow, the things to turn over and leave behind. What do you hear in Jesus’ call to deny yourself and take up your cross? Jesus is calling you to follow him and allow him to break up the hardened soil of your heart. 

Your heart may be hardened. The way to dig through the hard, cracked soil of that heart is through radical obedience. For you, radical obedience may mean salvation because you’ve never met God. God is a rumor to you, swirling somewhere “out there,” but you’ve never taken the risk of responding to him. Maybe you’ve had moments in your past when you’ve felt the pull of God, but you’ve resisted it. What might happen if you took the risk of responding to God now?

Or, obedience might mean taking an unfamiliar action because you’ve reduced God to something you’re comfortable with. Maybe you’ve domesticated God. What would happen if you were to set your expectations of comfort or safety aside and take the step to follow God? His path for you might lead to: taking a job that makes a greater impact in the world but less financial gain, serving outsiders in an unfamiliar part of your community, or taking on a challenge God presented to you years ago that has laid dormant in your heart. 

Reflection: Faith stops functioning properly when we look to ourselves or others for the way to live instead of following God. Where is God calling you to run with him?

Prayer: "God, I am tired of wandering over the desert-hard ground of my heart. I look to the cross where I have peace with you. Give me courage to follow you. Amen."