“Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” Proverbs 4:23
It was Charles Wesley who wrote a hymn, and prayer, on the subject of the heart: “Oh for a heart to praise my God, A heart from sin set free, A heart that’s sprinkled with the blood, So freely shed for me.” He continues: “A heart resigned, submissive, meek, My dear Redeemer’s throne; Where only Christ is heart to speak, Where Jesus reigns alone.” Wesley was a man after God’s own heart, a man in the pursuit of God. He was a man who had tasted and seen that the Lord is good, and more than that, to be desired and loved above all else. What then is the key for him, that which is so very essential for him to know this Christ, to commune with Him, to serve Him effectively, acceptably. It is a heart that is characterized by certain traits.
The first is a “heart from sin set free.” What does this mean, and is it possible in one’s experience? When the Lord Jesus died on Calvary, and uttered those terrible, and yet, wonderful words, “It is finished,” there occurred something in the heavens, with a magnificent effect on earth, that deals with this issue of a heart set free. The Apostle Paul writes to the Roman believers: “…knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him (Christ), that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin.” (6:6,7) There is in this declaration the revelation that Christ has dealt with the reign of sin in the believer, by breaking its grip. How? By taking the believer to Himself, making him to partake of His own crucifixion, so that “the old man,” all that is not of Christ in the believer, is crucified with Him, thus, has died. This is that which is TRUE in the sight of God, whether the believer grasps it or not. Judicially, legally, prophetically, and righteously, Christ has broken the hold, the bond, the tyranny of sin in principle and application in the life. This is the objective truth. But how does this objective truth manifest itself in everyday life? The answer lies in the Spirit of God by which the believer, having received power from God to be born again, actively strengthens the believer to overcome the principle of sin. Again, Paul writes so clearly on this matter: “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:2) It is by the power, the energy of the Spirit of God, that His strength is imparted to the believer to “choose” to live in the liberty that is his in Christ, not subjecting himself to the “law of sin and death.” It is as the believer is quickened, strengthened, and empowered by the Spirit, being filled with the Spirit, that he lives freely, in liberty, to love and serve Christ. If the believer sins, there is always that “fountain that is open for sin and uncleanness,” the blood of Christ, which washes away all sin. The believer only needs twenty seconds to confess, repent, and appropriate the cleansing from sin, to rise up and go forth with a clean and free heart.
The second characteristic of a heart that God seeks and will bless, is one that is “…resigned, submissive, meek, my dear Redeemer’s throne.” From the moment a person is born of the Spirit, and becomes a new creation in Christ, he belongs to a kingdom, the kingdom of light over which the Lord Jesus reigns as Lord, God, and King. Again, by the power of the Spirit, for which one seeks God and prays, the believer is strengthened in his heart to believe Christ for all, in all, submitting to His authority, revealed in the knowledge of His will.
The Third characteristic is blessed communion with Christ, the heart hearing and responding to His voice, His presence.
Dear Father, Give us pure hearts. In Jesus’ name, Amen.