Jesus replied, “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”
Matt 22:37
Cultivating a Well-Ordered Heart
Spiritual formation involves cultivating a well ordered heart, We look externally for order and balance and blame outward situations – if my job was different, if my parents weren’t so demanding.... However, when we are brutally honest with ourselves we have to admit that the truly significant disorder is in our heart. Solomon said: ‘Keep your heart with all diligence – out of it flow the issues of life.’ Imagine what the world would look like if it were filled with people who had well-ordered hearts.
A well-ordered heart will ask questions like:
- How can I fill my daily tasks with a sense of the presence of God?
- How am I involved in Christian community?
- How do the people closest to me experience God working in and through me?
- Am I growing in a love for God and people? How will I handle money in a way that draws me closer to God?
The answer lies in being intentional about our spirituality. This is not some works trip but rather orienting our lives around practices that allow us to live a life more purposeful and abundant. “Fixing your attention on Jesus, so that you will be changed from the inside out.” (Romans 12 Message)
Ellen White suggests we should make time each day to contemplate the life of Christ, especially the closing scenes – it is by beholding that you are changed. Maybe you need to take a look at your life and schedule and determine what needs to be changed so that you have the time to “be still and know”. Maybe some good things will need to be eliminated from your life to give God the chance to work in and through you.
When this change happens you find yourself being concerned for what concerns God. Your heart beats and breaks for what God’s heart beats and breaks for. Scripture tells us that people and the church are very high on God’s priorities and therefore they should be high on ours too.
Connecting With God - Brendan Pratt
No comments:
Post a Comment