Give Your Heart

My son, give me your heart and let your eyes delight in my ways.
Proverbs 23:26

What does the Lord ultimately want from us? Our hearts. To act or live a bit decently here and there, to feel good about our virtues and accomplishments, to stroll through life being looked up to – none of this is what the Lord wants. God wants your heart, yourself, your real self. What finally matters is that you love him who is merciful, and that he has your whole heart.

The heart that strives for the good looks to God. Such a heart is made happy by the miracle of his grace. God’s grace is always given to a heart that seeks him, and when relief comes, your heart will be flooded with more love, and you will feel liberated from everything that binds you and keeps you from being genuine. You will be truly joyful – you will be able to freely give or withhold whatever is required by the Spirit. You will no longer feel the need to measure up to anything or anyone, because your love for God, to whom you belong, will make you stand firm. Your heart will beat for what is pleasing to God, and it will be pained by whatever is done against him.

Happy and secure is the one who has given his whole heart to God. How simple this is if we but look to Jesus, God’s Son and our brother, whose pure heart reaches out to us.

If you don’t give your heart to Jesus, you will eventually become puzzled over what life brings to you – especially when things go wrong or when you have to suffer. You will not be able to discern where God is leading you. And you will be tempted to murmur and complain and become bitter. You will not only see things from a human perspective, but you will risk falling into doubt and disbelief. All your goodness, all your spiritual striving will then amount to nothing.

God wants you to rejoice in his will, so accept it humbly and gratefully. When he possesses your heart, he will guide you, not by circumstances or by the whirling events that press against you, but by his word. You will know how to accept what God sends because you will have ceased to have a separate will or self-will of your own.

May you learn to give your love and your heart anew to God each day, so that his ways – even when they are rough – do not appear strange and unpleasing. Surrender your heart and let your eyes delight in his ways, no matter what else may or may not happen to you.

Johann Christoph Blumhardt