Tag: Emotional

Love and Sing from From the Heart

I have studied the passage I was led to this morning, many times. I have even written about my study in the passage in my study of other words from the concordance in my bible. This morning I was brought here as I continue studying the word “heart”.

“19addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, 20giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,” – Ephesians 5:19-20 (ESV)

I was struck this morning reading Paul’s words to sing “to the Lord with your heart”. I am an emotional person even as I do not always display a lot of emotion to outsiders. When I am singing I have challenges with keeping my composure in that I am overcome with feelings that flow from my heart. I almost have to just look a singing as a task to complete and that I am reading words and the words have no meaning when I am singing publicly. This morning I ask myself why check myself to not let the emotion flow.

God’s Word tells us above to sing from the heart and allow the emotion to flow. In the same way, we are to love from the heart. We are to give everything to the LORD and let everyone know He is filling our heart. The world needs to know that the LORD is in our heart and that He guides our love. God is what fills us and where we sing from.

I commit this morning to expressing myself from the heart. As is my nature to be more even and less emotional to the public, it will be a struggle and subtle, but I will be praying for and working to act more from the heart for the world to see (even if the world is only those closest to me). I will sing and love from the heart to show them that it is filled with the Lord Jesus Christ.

What is it that drives your love and singing? Are you demonstrating based on those things that are on the surface and not really from your heart? What if you were let the LORD spill from your heart in your song and in your love for the world to see that your heart is filled with/by Him?

In Your Heart Know There is God

Notice how I phrase the title, “There is God”, not “there is a God”.

“1The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’

They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds;

there is none who does good.”

— Psalm 14:1

The verse above speaks of the “fool” keeping in his heart that “There is no God”. I found it interesting that the Hebrew word “fool” here means, according to my ESV commentary, “someone who stubbornly rejects wisdom”. It does not mean, as we would generally think, someone who is just not that bright. The writer is referring to people who consciously reject God’s existence in holding people to account for their actions. As such, they feel free to act in whatever manner they like without consequence.

This is not a “luxury” that I afford as a follower of Christ. I know in my heart that there is God and He will deal with me and my actions. I have escaped the wrath of God thanks to my salvation, but I am not immune to consequences of my actions. I still have to obey or be subject to accountability.

The LORD is looking down on me to watch over me. I can only imagine how, when I fail Him, He sneers knowing that He will have to hold me to account. But, He loves me too much to let me slide on those things. He ensures that I am aware of my faults so that I can work to avoid them in the future and carry on teaching others about Him.

Love is an emotional and actionable thing. The emotional part overlooks all accountability, where the actionable leans on accountability. I hold love for the LORD in my heart as He holds love in His heart. Both of us emotionally love one another as well as actionable. The actionable love I have for the LORD is in that He is to hold me accountable to my actions. The LORD’s actionable love for me is to hold me accountable for my actions. We are aligned here and should always be. But that alignment cannot be if I do not know in my heart that there is God.

How do you know there is God? Are you like the “fool” who chooses to reject his existence for accountability? What if you know on you heart that there is God and love him emotionally and actionable?