December 12 • Overflowing Heart

Your situation is not outside of God’s sight. Your life is not beyond God’s grasp. Do not be overly concerned about making things right. If everything were perfect, would things be that different within you? Would your heart be more righteous and just? Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. [Luke 6:45] Our complaints, worries, and frustrations betray a worried, anxious, and self-righteous heart. 

 A person after God’s own heart is fine shepherding a few sheep while others go off to war. A person after God’s own heart is at peace waiting for God to put him in the right place. A person after God’s own heart is able to endure the wilderness for years, able to handle being pursued and threatened. 

 That is not to say there aren’t problems out there. There are many evil hearts in this world, and some of them are working their will against you. You may be going through something that is unfair, unjust, or even evil. But that does not give us an excuse to repay evil for evil. Rather, overcome evil with good. [Romans 12]

 This is the confounding reality of God: God has overcome evil with goodness, not merely vengeance. God’s heart overflows with love for you. And out of the overflow of God’s heart, Jesus has come. He overcame all unfairness, bitterness, envy, and evil by taking it all in and pouring out instead his Spirit. Jesus is making things right, and he has decided to begin in just the right place: your heart. 

 I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you. [Ezekiel 36:26-27]