Luke 1:17 English Standard Version (ESV) and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”

1 Corinthians 2:9 English Standard Version (ESV) But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”

According to Ezekiel 36:26 we have been given a new heart and a new spirit. That new heart knows nothing about how to love as God loves. The new spirit is given to teach that heart how to love.

The issue of preparing the heart has to be seen in the light of this truth, it is being prepared for the Lord. We have not yet come to the wedding feast. Our hearts are being prepared for that day.

Revelation 21:2 calls us “prepared as adorned for Christ”.

We are human, we have not been translated yet and as such we are still undergoing preparations.

What we might fail to understand is that this new heart is His heart, after all He is Lord. As such He will love us in a way that will not damage our hearts. He will do nothing to scare us off and seeks only to draw us closer to Him.

Ephesians 3:19-21 English Standard Version

¹⁹ and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. ²⁰ Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

“At work within us.” Preparing us.

Now that we have taken a little pause for love, let us continue.

Ephesians 2:12 English Standard Version (ESV) remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

Ephesians 4:18 English Standard Version (ESV) They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.

The unbelieving heart must be broken before the truth can be received. In the parable of the sower the ground prepared to receive the gospel is called “good soil”. Do not allow words to deceive us in knowing that “good” means ready to receive the gospel, not sinless.

Many times we are so focused on just spreading the gospel that we fail to see the Holy Spirit tilling the soil. That work is performed by loving the lost where they are without judgment. We are not meant to judge the soil. If we allow the lost to see the life we live and the love that leads us, then we have done all that we can do by human effort.

Touching a hard heart and breaking it is the work for the Holy Spirit. Our judgment related to worthiness only hinders His work.

Those that brought me to Christ did not insinuate their lives into mine. I sought to insinuate myself into theirs because of the quality of love in theirs. The instinct to seek love is at the core of evangelism. The lost want to be loved. They just have not found “so great a love” until they saw it for themselves.

Numbers 14:19 English Standard Version (ESV) “Please pardon the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt until now.”

Let this be our prayer as we seek to show the lost the love that dwells inside us.