Whole Hearts

 



Multiple times in Deuteronomy the children of Israel are invited and reminded to give their whole hearts to the Lord.  


Entire.


All.


Complete.


It's not enough to give part of our hearts and then make up our guidelines for the rest.  


CS Lewis taught that where man goes working is when they "could set up on their own as if they had created themselves—be their own masters—invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside God, apart from God. And out of that hopeless attempt has come … the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy."


I mean truly happy.  Whole hearts happy.  Even when things aren't going perfect happy.  


And happiness will never be just about us.  


Jesus taught us that over and over again.  


One key place we can work on this is by teaching the next generations.


By giving them a stark contrast to the lies of the world that say we can buy, invent or demand our own happiness.


When first we love the Lord with all our hearts, then we can lead our children to Him in all of our interactions. They will grow in their devotion to the Lord as they see our devotion to Him. They will understand the power of prayer as they hear us pray to a loving Heavenly Father who is there listening and answering our prayers. They will understand faith as they see us live by faith. And they will learn the power of love by the kind and respectful ways that we relate to them. We cannot teach truth to our children apart from the trusting, caring relationships that we have with them. (Anne G Wirthlin).  


But the most beautiful part is that when we do give our whole hearts in this way, He will respond by filling our whole hearts with Godly love.  And true happiness. 

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