Take Heart

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

TAKE HEART

Prov 20:9

9 Who can say, "I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin"?

NIV

Let’s see, there is the Father, then there is the Son and oh yes, there is the Holy Spirit. Aside from the Holy Trinity there is none, no not one who can say they have kept their heart pure, and they are without sin. Yet there is hope. There are many, perhaps thousands even tens of thousands who can testify that the blood of Jesus has cleansed them from all unrighteousness. We too must admit we are not without sin, we cannot claim our heart is pure, nor can we claim anything other than we have been saved by the grace of God. There is not a single thing we can do that would make us worthy of his grace, otherwise it would not be grace, but a repayment for our works. In addition, our works are as filthy rages. Not even the best of our works could justify us before God. Only through the blood of Jesus. He is the only way to eternal life. Faith in Christ is our only hope. And even then it is God who gives every man a measure of faith. It would seem we cannot even have faith without the grace of God. What we can testify is that God is good all the time and all the time God is good. He is the only one who is good. We are told we should not think about certain things, and there are things we are to think about.

Phil 4:4-9

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me — put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

NIV

We can be assured it is the peace of God, which we cannot fully understand, because it transcends all understanding, will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Again let us consider this guarding. Although we may not fully understand, it might well be that God sees our heart and mind through the heart and mind of Christ. Because we are in Christ and Christ is in us, we are hidden in Christ, thus seen as Christ. But at the same time we are to fill our mind, our thinking process with what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. Let’s see, that would be Jesus. It is difficult to always be thinking about Jesus, especially when our heart and mind is being tempted continuously to think about other things. We get distracted so easily, so quickly, because our heart and mind is not pure, because we are not without sin and we will never be until we step into eternity. But that does give us an excuse. We are to make every effort to live in a manner that pleases God. The best manner is to have faith in Jesus, to be covered by his blood.

John 16:33

33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." 

NIV

And so, we take heart!