Gut Check of the Heart

“But [like a boxer] I strictly discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached [the gospel] to others, I myself will not somehow be disqualified [as unfit for service]” (1 Corinthians 9:27 AMP).

If you need to be told that you did a good job, “You did a good job. You gave, and you submitted to man. You showed up and did what they asked. Good job.”

“But I have this [charge] against you, that you have left your first love [you have lost the depth of love that you first had for Me]” (Revelation 2:4 AMP).

Gut Check:

Don’t love the applause of men more than you love God.

Why do you show up?

What do you gain from that, and what happens when the way that they applaud you does not meet your need of this kind of fulfillment?

Beat your body into submission to God. Serve Him well. Become an early riser and seek the Father to release the strategy for the day to you. Sit in His presence and bask in His love. Thank Him for what He has already done and all of heaven will applaud you for being submitted to Abba Father.

God sees your service, be He also sees your heart, ask yourself, is it far from Him?

^“For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good,traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away (2 Timothy 3:2-9 NKJV).

Their “good job” is not the same as a “job well done, my good and faithful servant.”

Today is a gut check. Check your temperature in the spirit. Are you hot for Jesus, or have you grown cold in some way?

“Create in me a clean heart, O God; And renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10 ASV).

“Create pure thoughts in me and make me faithful again” ( Psalm 51:10 CEV).

God is saying “return to me.” You didn’t leave the church, but you left His presence in that you seek everything else but more of Him. If you really want more, get in the face of the Father, and sit with Him. This is how we will get that clean heart and right spirit that so many of us are crying out for. Allow God to have access into the store houses of your heart and go through the cleansing process.

“Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great a delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obedience to the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed [is better] than the fat of rams” ( 1 Samuel 15:22 AMP).

Thank you for your sacrifice- your time and your money. Good job? Everything was needful, yes; but now, God wants you to be a living sacrifice. A sacrifice that lays down their agenda, their plans, and their human need to be enough in the eyes of men. God wants you! Just You!

“Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship”

(Romans 12:1 NASB).

Lord, thank you for positioning me in your face in such a way that you love me into righteousness. I am not displaced or an orphan. I am a child of the King who is welcomed in His house. You train me, in love, to represent you well, and you heal me from the beatings of life as you shape me into who you called me to be from the beginning. Lord, I repent for my sins, and I ask for help. I submit to you as a living sacrifice, and I heed the word that you have given to me today. As David said, create in me a clean heart and a right spirit so that I do not sin against you. May my motives be pure and my hands be clean from all wrongdoing. I pray to have a heart posture that is perfectly aligned with yours. I pray for spiritual 20/20 vision. Help me to see you (and me) clearly. My prayer is to walk upright in Jesus, for His glory, not mine. Continue the work in me. In Jesus name, amen.

“The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands” (Psalm 138: 8 ESV).

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JaNina B.

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