Deuteronomy 15:10 Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him: because that for this thing the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto.
My heart wasn’t in it. With all my heart. Two extremes that many of us have probably said or felt over the years. I know I have. You do not have to do something begrudgingly to be less than fully supportive of an action.
There are few things in this world I can openly and honestly say, “With all my heart.” We reason and rationalize. We are convinced or convicted. In all honesty, how many things can you say you have given your all?
Perhaps that is why God said in this verse “not be grieved”. Not being grieved is something less than all your heart, but it is not begrudgingly either. I am one who is self-critical. I judge myself harshly. If I have not been at my best, I grieve over it. But I am human and I may always be somewhere in between those two extremes.
God understands that and is not going to withhold His blessing just because I haven’t done all things with all my heart. He just asks that I do not grieve over my choices. The conditioning part of this devotional is that of the heart. It takes time to be conditioned to this new heart and change isn’t instant or even easy. But we do change. We do get used to our new heart. It is our minds that have to learn to trust that are hearts are right.
Ezekiel 11:19 And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:
The big question of this blog…..”how many things can you say you have given your all to”? Thank you you for the challenge. I have a tendency to be emotional…this is my makeup…God has made me this way, so I have to work harder at commitments. One commitment I made years ago was to read through the entire Bible, instead of “hit and miss” passage reading. This came on the challenge of dear brother Albert Hayhoe’s question “have you young people ever read through the Bible from beginning to end”? I was convicted by the Spirit of God and have found the blessing God has for me in this. I am now on my 6th time through and realize more fully that ” I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me”, and this has reaped great benefits in my “forgetful years”. I also have a deep admiration for all who embark on a service for my Lord, and never lose that focus, so to all of you in this category, I thank our Lord for your conviction and service and keep going on for Jesus.