New Hope Diamond Head Staff Daily Devotions & Journal Blog: HEART WORK. By Pastor Fernando

Doing Devotions Together

We want you to take a look at what God is speaking to our church staff! This blog will help you to be encouraged by what others journal about. Also, it will assist you as you improve the way you journal. We use the SOAP system (Scripture, Observation, Application, and Prayer). To learn more about how the SOAP System works when doing daily devotions and journaling, click here!

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Tuesday, September 1, 2009

HEART WORK. By Pastor Fernando

SCRIPTURE
"How weak-willed you are, declares the Sovereign LORD, when you do all these things..."
Ezekiel 16:30

OBSERVATION
As God describes the horrible acts of Israel and compares them with a brazen prostitute, He summarizes the root cause of the problem in this verse. He describes the people being weak-willed. Other translations say, sick at heart (NIV). The Amplified version says, "weak and spent with longing and lust is your heart and mind." This condition describes how capable is the human heart to walk away from God. And God brings judgment into their lives because they refused to work in their hearts. They neglected heart work.

APPLICATION
God's description of the human heart in Ezekiel does not surprise me. What always amazes me is our ability to deny the propensity of our heart to walk away from God and our constant neglect of heart work. We think that our religuios traditions and rituals deal with the heart effectively. But the reality is that our hearts can only be pure in the Holy fire of God's presence. Just like Israel fooled herself believing that they were right with God because of their connection to Abraham, we will fool ourselves if we think that we are right with God by following our traditions. Our heart is sick, and we need an intervention where God's presence burns it all. He has promised us a new heart, a heart that will obey Him and follow Him wholeheartedly. But this heart is only forged by grace as we seek His face sincerely, not to get things from Him, but to grow in friendship with Him. The most important ministry is the ministry of our own heart. We cannot neglect heart work.

PRAYER
Dear heavenly Father, thank you so much for your reminder about the true condition and propensity of my heart. Please change my broken heart for a new heart that gets rid of my weak will and makes me diligent and resilient to obey your ways. Give me a heart that obeys not because I have to, but because I want to. Give me a heart that trusts you and surrenders to your will because I want to be closer to you. Draw me close to you! Never let me go! Amen.