Give Freely From the Heart

“⁹Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, ‘The seventh year, the year of release is near,’ and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the Lord against you, and you be guilty of sin. ¹⁰You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake.” – Deuteronomy 15:9-10 (ESV)

This passage is from that titled in my ESV Bible as “The Sabbatical Year”. The instruction in the full passage is to give freely to your brothers and neighbors. Whether lending or full on gifting, you are to be sure to provide for the needs of your poor brothers and sisters. In this Sabbatical year, there is a moratorium in the collection of the lent resources. That can be fully forgiven or simply paused for the year. But no matter where you are in relation to the Sabbatical year, you are to continue to give freely to your poor brothers and sisters.

The part of the verse that I was led to this morning is that of giving freely from the heart. We are to want to support our neighbors and brothers. We are to almost go out of our way to provide for their needs, and do so from a deep sense of love and compassion without concern for payback. We are to be heartfelt in providing and not do so with any animosity in our heart.

I admit to being cynical and have a hard time with supporting others that have opportunity to support themselves. I have seen too often, those who take advantage of the generosity of others and wonder if there really is need based on the actions of those receiving. But, I have to remember the second part of verse 10 above, “because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake.”

You see, it is not about what my brother, sister, and neighbor has going on in their heart, when the need is identified, it is my role to work to fill that need. Yes, their may be ill intent on the part of the receiver, and they will be dealt with by the LORD just as I will be dealt with based on my actions to provide. There should be no grudgingly giving. I have to give freely from the heart to meet the needs of my brother, sister, and neighbor. In that I will find my reward in heaven.

What is your view of giving? Are you reluctant based on the actions of those who you provide? What if you were to give freely from the heart and allow God to provide judgment?

Remove the Distractions Preventing Your Heart from Proper Love of God

“¹⁶Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.” – Deuteronomy 10:16 (ESV)

I spent some time working to reconcile the passage of study this morning. I was led to the passage through verse 12 that again reiterates the need to love and serve the LORD with all your heart and soul. But as is common with God and His plan for me, I was struck by other verses within the passage.

Verse 16 above is speaking of removing that which causes difficulty in getting to the right that is there. In the commentary of my ESV Bible it says, “Here, circumcision symbolizes removing the stubbornness that prevents the heart from properly loving God (cf Ex. 6:12, where ‘uncircumcised lips’ do not speak week; Jer. 6:10, where ‘uncircumcised ears’ do not hear clearly).” We have too much in our lives that get in the way of us just loving God.

I know that there are things that I struggle with daily that prevent me from devoting myself to God. One of the biggest is my cell phone. That thing is such a time suck and filled will useless and distracting items. There is the world wide web of searches. There is social media. There is the pictures that have been taken and the regret that comes with missing a photo. There is the endless apps to keep us from truly experiencing. I get caught in a moment of break from work each day, checking my phone for updates that I “need” to know.

Removing the distracting thing would help so much in my relationship with the LORD. Instead of the phone distraction, reading God’s Word. Instead of watching television, praying to the LORD. Instead of working in the garage, sitting and reflecting all that God has provided. The thing is to remove that which makes it more challenging and in a lot of cases impossible to properly love God with all my heart, soul, and mind.

What are the things in your life making it harder to love God? Are you telling yourself that you can manage them all just fine? What if you were to consciously remove the distracting stubborn things that are getting in the way of you properly loving God?

Love the LORD with All Your Heart

“⁵You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” – Deuteronomy 6:5 (ESV)

And there you have it, the greatest commandment. We are to love the LORD will all our heart and more. But don’t take my word for it.

“’³⁶Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?’ ³⁷And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38This is the great and first commandment.’” – Matthew 22:36-37 (ESV)

Jesus tells us the same so it is not just me saying. It is something to love, something else to love with all your heart, soul, and mind. It is loving with every fiber of you being. It is emotional love and physical love and actions of love.

It is the common thing in the social world today to throw up a heart sign, meaning “I love you” or “you have my heart” when expressing ourselves positively for some thing. I do it, influencers do it, public figures do it, most everyone does it. But notice when it does get used, it is in the world as we know it today and we express it, in a lot of cases, to those we don’t even really “know”. What about throwing it up with the LORD.

Our greatest commandment is to love the LORD with all our heart and yet, are we our there expressing that full love to Him at all times. I don’t believe we are. I know that I am not always queued in to my heartfelt love for the LORD. I may pray to Him in the morning and when there is a need to be expresses for others, but I should be better at being all in, heart, soul, and mind, for the LORD. I have to throw up a heart sign for Him more than I do for other figures in this world. I have to live the greatest commandment in my life as I have been instructed to do and more importantly, as I should do for the savior of my life.

What is your view of love for the LORD? Are you giving others love with all of your heart before the LORD? What if you were to first give the LORD all of your love from the heart, soul, and mind as instructed by Jesus?

Seek the LORD with Your Heart and Find Him

I am a sinner and will always be. I will continue to stray away from the LORD. I will serve idols that are not Him, those that He has created as He created all things.

“²⁹But from there you will seek the LORD your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.” – Deuteronomy 4:29 (ESV)

When I need Him, He is there. I only need to seek after Him with my heart. Word choice is so important as I have found and written often. Whereas seeking and looking are synonyms in the English language, they hold very different meaning in Hebrew. Seek in Hebrew is earnest and diligent search where look is searching for the tangible. As we know, God is not tangible. He is omnipresent, and omniscient, and as such is not a physical thing to find.

Moses in the passage is instructing the people of the forbiddeness of idolatry. But he also tells the people that they will fall away and that when things get the darkest, God is still there and He will be found when we seek after Him with our heart.

“³⁰When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the LORD your God and obey his voice. ³¹For the LORD your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.” – Deuteronomy 4:30-31 (ESV)

How is it will we find the LORD when we seek after Him with our heart. Because He is merciful. Even as we have fallen away, He waits for us and does not destroy us. He does not forget the covenant He has with us and even as we turn from Him He does not turn on us.

I can get back to the LORD through my earnest search for Him. I can seek Him with all my heart and He will be found because He never left and wants for me to find Him.

What is your idea to find the LORD? Are you looking for Him as some sort of tangible thing? What if you were to seek Him with your heart knowing that He will be found, because He wants to be?

Love From the Heart

I was led to a passage in Leviticus this morning titled, “Love Your Neighbor as Yourself”. Verse 17 of chapter 19 was the verse that led me here as I continue my study of the word “heart”.

“¹⁷You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him.” – Leviticus 19:17 (ESV)

This verse by itself does not speak of love directly. In fact, in the complete passage, including the title, the word love is only used twice. But the concept of love is fully given. Not in the common emotional sense, but in the action sense and that can be seen in the verse above.

Love is often considered soft and fluffy. It is this vision of the caring mother, the doting spouse, the affectionate parent, or the giving neighbor. Where this is love in action, it is also action of love to be frank with others and holding others accountable and not doing doing things that cause others to find grief or hardship and provide some relief.

The verse above tells us to not have hate in our heart. How do we do that, well, we fill our heart with love actions. Author and speaker Jon Gordon writes in his book “The Positive Dog”, “you can’t be stressed and thankful at the same time”^a. Where this quote is not specific to love, it does speak to the idea that your heart cannot be full of hate if it is full of love. It is in love that we take action.

Love begins with God and when He fills our heart, we have no room for hate. With God in our heart, we will emit it all around us. No, it will not always be seen as the caring mother, the doting spouse, the affectionate parent, or the giving neighbor. But it will always be to not cause others to find grief or hardship and provide some relief. It all starts with that love from the heart.

What is your view of love and where it comes from? Are you stuck on the emotional side of love? What if you were to fill you heart with God, who is love, and leave no room for hate so that you can bring love to others from your heart?

^aGordon, Jon. The Positive Dog. John Wiley & Sons, 2012, p. 18.

Give From the Heart

There are a lot of campaigns out there to be involved in. There are charities, climate organizations, political races, churches, and any number of other places to give. All of them may be worthy in their own right and the mind of those who are running them. But that does not meant that they are all for our contribution. Whatever we are giving should not be an impulse and should be given from the heart.

“¹The LORD said to Moses, ’²Speak to the people of Israel, that they take for me a contribution. From every man whose heart moves him you shall receive the contribution for me.’” – Exodus 25:1-2 (ESV)

Here we see the LORD’s instruction to build a sanctuary for Him to dwell. Where the sanctuary was for the LORD and from the people, God did not demand a certain value from each person. The LORD was looking for donations/contribution to be voluntary and from the heart, “From every man whose heart moves him”.

In society today, I feel as though there is somewhat of a guilt trip laid on the people to give to any and all campaigns out there. There is always a sad story followed by an open hand or bucket being passed.

For me, I can say that I have passed those buckets right by. I walk right by the bake sales at the department storefronts. I put my hand up to indicate to stay back at the popcorn sale. I make it a point to not get drawn into every campaign that crosses near me. Not because they are not in “need” of help, but because my heart is not in it at that time.

God asks the people to consider in their heart whether or not to give to the sanctuary building fund. My church is currently in a building fund raising time. And I have committed to giving beyond my normal offering in support of that building, but not without careful and prayerful consideration and fully from my heart.

“³And they received from Moses all the contribution that the people of Israel had brought for doing the work on the sanctuary. They still kept bringing him freewill offerings every morning, ⁴so that all the craftsmen who were doing every sort of task on the sanctuary came, each from the task that he was doing, ⁵and said to Moses, ‘The people bring much more than enough for doing the work that the Lord has commanded us to do.’” – Exodus 36:3-5 (ESV)

When we give from the heart, God will receive more than enough. The people gave freely to the building of the sanctuary and their gifts were more than enough. So much so that in the next two verses (Ex. 36:6-7) Moses tells the people to stop contributing.

Generosity is important, but where that giving comes from is of more importance. How many times have we seen giving publicized to the point that we celebrate those who gave the most. It still goes on today. But it should not be about the publicity and should be about the campaign. Giving should come from the heart and those contributions should be to the campaigns that touch your heart. There are plenty of campaigns out there and I am sure that one or more will touch your heart. If they do, consider contribution, but if they do not touch your heart, it is okay to walk away.

What is your thought on giving to campaigns? Are you giving out of a sense of guilt and giving to any and all that you come in contact? What if you were to contribute to those that touch your heart and know that when you and everyone else does, there will be more than enough to meet the need?

Truth in God’s Heart

God has a heart and as He made us in His own image, you and I do as well. There is a difference though. God only has truth in His heart and you and I, well, we don’t.

“²¹And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, ‘I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done.’” – Genesis 8:21 (ESV)

See the verse above and the reference God makes to the heart of man, “man’s heart is evil from his youth”. So we are evil in our heart. We go against the LORD and man at any chance we can. We are not worthy of any mercy or grace from the LORD. It starts early on and carries through our entire life in this world.

But the LORD, He is full of truth and honesty. See the same verse above the LORD’s words, “I will never again curse the ground because of man”. Even as we are evil from early on, God is not and works around us and our evil for the good of the world.

But Trevor, how is it then that people and animals are destroyed if God will not destroy it? I hear you and all I have for that is that God is a righteous and just God. He will still issue justice where it is due. Although that is the thing, it is due and directed and not just as it was, complete. God did not indicate that He would not issue justice, only that He would not completely destroy it all because of the sins of the one.

And that is the difference in God and man. God is truth from His heart to His actions where man is not. God makes promises and keeps them, where man makes promises (until circumstances change) and then goes against the promise for what is for him. God is truth from before the beginning.

“¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was in the beginning with God.” – John 1:1-2 (ESV)

“6Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” – John 14:6a (ESV)

What is your view of truth in your heart? Are you of the view that you are truth inside and out? What if you looked at God as the only truth from the heart and embraced that we are born with the disposition of evil in our hearts?

The Heart

This morning I am starting a new word study. I am studying the word “heart”. My study process is that I am guided through God’s Word by using the concordance of my Bible. I choose a word that I feel led by Him to focus on and then go through that word in God’s Word verse by verse as noted from the concordance. I allow God to speak to me without looking for anything specific. Sometimes the LORD leads me directly to the word and something He would have me learn or know, and other times it is the passage that teaches me.

“⁵The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” – Genesis 6:5 (ESV)

I begin this morning in the above verse, which is found in the passage titled, “Increasing Corruption on Earth” in my English Standard Version of God’s Word. We see here that there was evil in the world and that evil was not just in the few, but was overtaking the earth. And that evil was so powerful it had overtaken the hearts of the people. Not just surface evil to get a response or appear to be something in the “right” social circles, but deep within the people and had corrupted their being from the inside.

The time it took for this corruption was not short. From Adam to this time was about 1500 years. So it was a “Slow Fade” as the song by Casting Crowns notes. And can’t we see that even today. I feel as though corruption in the world is extremely great even now and we are at 2000 years after Christ came to this world.

“⁶And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. ⁷So the Lord said, ‘I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.’” – Genesis 6:6-7 (ESV)

And just how did/does this land in the heart of God. Well, He was/is grieved. The LORD acknowledges His grief and disappointment. And decides to take action to start over again. Being truth, God was hurting that the truth was not being carried out in the world He had created. But, that hurt was given comfort with the next verse.

“⁸But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” – Genesis 6:8 (ESV)

God found the truth again in Noah. He found the one to spare from His wrath. He was encouraged once again.

What I find here in the heart of these few short verses is that the heart is complicated yet very simple. The breadth of capacity of the heart is immense. From corruption to grief to love and favor. All of these are found in the heart. The heart is a powerful and wonderful part of our identity. And where is that heart, but deep within us.

We have a heart that drives our actions and so does God. We are subject to evil and corruption and anger and grief and love. Remember that God made man in His own image and with the exception evil and corruption, He experiences all that we do in His heart as well. It is all deep within us in our heart and the only way to deal with it is to allow God. I have to allow God to take over my heart and fill it.

What is your view of the heart in your life? Are you aware that it is the center of our actions? What if we did and allowed God to fill it with all that He is and take us over from deep within?

Not for All

There are those that will not receive compassion, either from us, or more importantly from God.

“¹⁴What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! ¹⁵For he says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’” – Romans 9:14-15 (ESV)

Paul here is pointing out God’s sovereignty. God dictates all, whether mercy or compassion are given or not. And as noted, not everyone will receive them.

“²⁷And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: ‘Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved,’” — Romans 9:27 (ESV)

Paul again references the Old Testament and notes that not all of Israel will be saved even as the Israelite people are the chosen people.

Yes, we are to give compassion where we are confronted with the opportunity. And we are to discard custom and convention for compassion. And we are to give compassion even when we are worn out. But we also have to remember we will not give compassion to all in the world. There are those that we are not able to reach nor do we come in contact with.

I am but one person and where I am to do all that God has for me to do, I also have to remember that it is up to God where mercy and compassion are given. I follow the LORD and He works through me. Where He deems mercy to be given, I will give mercy. Where He deems compassion be given, I will give compassion. Where He knows salvation is at hand, I will be there to offer His gift. But make no mistake, it is not for all, and the LORD takes the lead with who receives.

What is your take on mercy, compassion, and salvation? Are you of the view that everyone should receive indiscriminately? What if you were to devote yourself to God and know that He decides and not all receive mercy, compassion, and salvation?

Discard Custom and Convention for Compassion

“²⁰And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.” – Luke 15:20 (ESV)

This verse is from the parable of the prodigal son. You know the one, where the son took his inheritance early, left and squandered it all and then returned to a father who welcomed him back with open, thankful, and excited arms. All of that is great, but I was looking here at this one verse to where I was led this morning.

In that day the men were to be dignified and stoic. They had servants to do for them. Not to mention that once the son had gone with his early inheritance, he was considered dead to the family. So, it was out of custom and convention for a head of household to act in such an open, thankful, excited and revealing way.

As my pastor described for me to get a visual, imagine this father seeing his son in the distance and hiking up his cloak and coverings and sprinting to embrace his son who had been “dead” and was now alive. I am sure that the son was filthy and had a pretty good stench to him as he had been living and working with pigs.

The father was not concerned with the condition of the son and did not listen to the son’s confession or even consider what had transpired. He simply heaped on compassion to him. He forgot and went against all customs and conventions of the day to drench his found son in compassion for he considered himself whole again.

How often is it that we avoid compassion because it is not conventional or customary to give it in our times today. I think of giving forgiveness where it would be customary to condemn. I think of service to those who may not be “deserving” of service. I think of hugging someone instead of hitting them when they do wrong against us. We have to step out of the customary and conventional response to demonstrate compassion and that will disrupt the situation entirely.

What is your reaction when something goes awry? Are you of the action to stick to the response expected? What if you were to discard the customary and conventional responses and deliver compassion instead?