{"id":1389,"date":"2015-10-10T21:48:39","date_gmt":"2015-10-11T01:48:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.slentz.us\/wordpress\/?p=1389"},"modified":"2015-10-10T21:48:39","modified_gmt":"2015-10-11T01:48:39","slug":"heart-engagement-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slentz.org\/blog\/devotional\/heart-engagement-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Heart Engagement"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"19474052_m\"<\/a>God asks us, “Who hath engaged<\/strong> his heart to approach unto Me?” (Jer 30:21 KJV).<\/em>
\nThe first picture that this Scripture paints\u00a0 in my heart is that of revving up the engine of a standard transmission car without releasing the clutch! A lot of noise and wasted energy, but the car remains in the same place. Our times of prayer,\u00a0 praise, and worship\u00a0can be supercharged at top rpm’s, but without letting out the clutch and engaging our hearts,\u00a0not much is accomplished.
\nThat was exactly where the Pharisees were in Jesus’ day. They had supercharged engines revved up with all the Scriptures and perfected rules and regulations, but their hearts were completely disengaged. Jesus made this bold statement to them:<\/p>\n

He answered and said to them, \u201cWell did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: \u2018This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me<\/strong>. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men'” (Mark 7:6-7 NKJV).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

God’s question in Jeremiah provokes yet\u00a0another thought\u00a0within me:\u00a0 Our\u00a0lives are a complicated network of gears \u2013 one gear grinding against another and so much going on. Yet, when it comes to taking time with the Lord, it is essential to first disengage everything else, and then only can we fully engage the heart.<\/strong>
\nWhen Jesus visited Mary and Martha, we find that this is exactly what Mary did: she chose\u00a0“that good part which shall not be taken away.”<\/em> Martha’s heart was engaged\u00a0with many important things, but she was missing out on\u00a0that divine moment of engaging with Jesus \u2013 “the one needful thing” (Luke 10:38-42)<\/em>. The Psalmist David understood this when he proclaimed, “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after…” (Psalms 27:4 KJV)<\/em>.
\n“I will praise You, O Lord, with my whole heart<\/strong>…” (Psalms 9:1 NKJV)\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>“Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me<\/strong>, bless His holy name” (Psalm 103:1).<\/em> David knew what heart engagement was all about and this is most likely why God\u00a0refers to\u00a0David as a “man after my own\u00a0heart” (Acts 13:22)<\/em>.
\nOn many occasions in Psalms, David\u00a0takes several verses simply to tell the Lord that he is going to tell the Lord something (as strange as that might sound!). Look at this psalm where David uses seven separate expressions to do just that:<\/p>\n

Give ear to my words, O Lord, Consider my meditation. Give heed to the voice of my cry, My King and my God, For to You I will pray. My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord; In the morning I will direct it to You, And I will look up (Psalm 5:1-3 NKJV).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

David also knew that there are divine moments when God \u00a0calls us to seek Him. In such spontaneous, unannounced moments, David had exercised himself to disengage all else and then to engage his heart with equal spontaneity:<\/p>\n

When You said, \u201cSeek My face,\u201d my heart said to You, \u201cYour face, O Lord, I shall seek.\u201d Do not hide Your face from me…” (Psalms 27:8-9a NASB ).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Engaging one’s heart also involves understanding the seriousness of the moment. In other Bible translations of Jeremiah 30:21,\u00a0the expression “who has engaged his heart” takes on an additional meaning:<\/p>\n

\u00a0“…For who would dare to risk his life<\/strong> to approach Me?\u2019 declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 30:21 NASB).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The original Hebrew word used in this psalm actually supports both of\u00a0 versions. The whole idea here is that when one’s life is at risk, there is a whole-heartedness in everything that one does or says. All flippancy and light-heartedness flee away. This is best illustrated by\u00a0how Esther risked her life to come and stand before the king (Esther 4:16).<\/em> One move of the king’s scepter would mean death or life! “If I perish, I perish!”<\/em> were Esther’s words. Her heart was focused (she spent several days fasting), her mind was determinedly clear, and her words were planned out and intentional!
\nOf course, we have no need to fear our loving King’s scepter, it’s already been stretched out in favor towards us through Jesus Christ and by the Blood He shed. Nevertheless, as we draw near to Him, we should do so with a true, sincere, and engaged<\/em><\/strong> heart:<\/p>\n

Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus…let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith… (Hebrews 10:19-22 NASB).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

May the Lord help us to be a people of purpose with hearts fully engaged<\/b><\/em> as we continue our sweet fellowship\u00a0with\u00a0the Lord and our service for Him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

God asks us, “Who hath engaged his heart to approach unto Me?” (Jer 30:21 KJV). The first picture that this Scripture paints\u00a0 in my heart …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[236,242],"class_list":["post-1389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotional","tag-whole-hearted","tag-worship"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8ofw-mp","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/slentz.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/slentz.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/slentz.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slentz.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slentz.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/slentz.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1389\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/slentz.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slentz.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slentz.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}