Mensa Otabil - Set Your Heart On God
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Today we conclude our teaching on choices, and this is the seventh part. I want you to take time to go through what we’ve learned throughout the week. Listen to them over again and ponder them because they are guidelines to help us make the right choices in our lives.
We conclude with Colossians 3:1: «If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God.» We must set our hearts on the right things if we want to make good choices. That means our hearts must be in the right place. When we say that your heart is in the right place, we’re talking about your values. Your values drive your life; they determine what is important to you and what you’re ready to spend your time, energy, and talent on. All of these things are determined by your values because they indicate what is weighty and significant to you. For us to have the right values, we must center our hearts where Christ is. As Christians, we must learn to align our beliefs and desires with those of Christ Jesus, so that what is on His heart is also on our hearts. This is a way to establish the right value system and to assist you in your pursuit, ensuring that the things you pursue bring glory and honor to Him.
Most of the time, we think that Christianity is only about prayer, Bible study, giving, sharing our faith, and being good. These are all positive things we should be doing, but Christianity goes a little beyond that. It is a daily yearning for God. If we do all these things — pray, study the Bible, give-but have no heart for God, do not desire Him, and do not want to be in His presence or have His values, then all our Christian activities will lack depth. They will lack the values that must sustain them and the godliness that must uphold them.
The believer’s spirit can be satisfied in the presence of God. A believer can be happy with his life and still have a great desire for God, and that is where God wants us to be. He wants us to have a heart for Him-a heart that pants for Him, a heart that desires Him, a heart that seeks His will. As we do that, as our hearts align with Him, the things we consider important will also be aligned with Him. Therefore, the choices we make will also align with Him because if your heart is in the wrong place, the things you consider important will differ greatly from what God wants. You will always be pursuing the wrong things, making the wrong choices, and never doing the right thing. So, we set our hearts on Him by desiring Him. We must have a hunger for the Lord, a desire for the Lord, so seek first the Lord.
However, when we say we must pursue the Lord, it doesn’t mean we must have no dreams or desires and that all we do is seek God without pursuing anything else. No, that’s not what it is. We have desires, we have visions, we have goals, but in seeking God, we subject all of these to the Lord. We bring them under His feet and allow Him to influence all the desires of our hearts. Otherwise, we may have great desires, but they can be ungodly. We can have great goals, but they might take us totally out of the will of God.
So, the great things we want to do must always be brought to the feet of Jesus, and that happens when our hearts are set on Him. So, seek the Lord, desire Him, hunger after Him, thirst after Him. If you do that, I can tell you without any shadow of doubt that your choices will always be close to the heart of the Lord, and He will help you pursue and fulfill them. But if your heart is not where God is, then He will resist you because your choices do not bring glory to His name. That’s how I conclude our teaching on choices; it all ends in Jesus and doing His will.
Let us pray. Say with me: Heavenly Father, I want to know You and stay close to You. Help me to draw near to You with all my being. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.