Give God Your Heart

Our hearts are the center of our person. They are the source of who we most genuinely are. And in broad terms, there are two different kinds of hearts.

There is the closed, reactive heart. And there is the open, receptive heart.

The closed, reactive heart is marked by bitterness and defensiveness. Hardened by sin, both by its own doing and by what it has suffered, the closed heart is constantly on guard and suspicious. It is stingy about what it might give and paranoid about what others might take. It keeps score and holds grudges. It sees mercy as a threat.

The other kind of heart — the open, receptive heart — is marked by charity and hospitality. Humbled by sin, both by its own and others’, the open heart is mainly thankful. It is generous and buoyant, joyful and gentle. It sees mercy as the reason of its existence and something to be shared.

There is the closed heart and the open heart, and I venture to say that none of us have totally one or the other. If these two kinds of hearts are two ends of a continuum, we often fall somewhere on this line, but our calling is to an open heart. The apostle Paul describes this in Ephesians 4:32,

“Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

This tells us the only way we can have an open, receptive heart to others is to first have an open, receptive heart to God — we need our hearts to receive God’s grace. Our hearts must surrender to his mercy. We need, more than anything, to submit our hearts to the transforming power of God’s love for us in Christ. And that’s my exhortation to us this morning: give God your heart. Give it to him afresh. Surrender it to him again.

Let’s pray:

Father, whatever it is in us that keeps us from this kind of surrender is why we come to you now in confession. Father, forgive us for acting like we are better managers of our hearts than you are. Forgive us for our defensiveness born by unbelief and our cynicism that leads to hopelessness. We are desperate for your mercy — mercy we often want withheld from others, and for this and other sins, we ask for your forgiveness. We ask that by your Spirit, lead us now in a time of silent confession …

Father, as we think about our sins and failures, we are undone. But then we remember the cross of your Son. In all the places where we are confronted with our guilt and fear and shame, we plead the blood of Jesus. Thank you that he died in our place. Thank you that he is raised from the dead. Thank you that he is coming again. We now, by your grace, rejoice in Jesus our Lord and King. In his name, amen.