Preparing Your Heart for God

One of the best ways to start any project is to have a clean slate. For Christ-followers, this only happens with confession. Let me explain please. Unless you are a sociopath, most people know when they did something wrong. It is what happens next, that declares a person’s belief system. Some people skip the admission of guilt and go straight into some sort of weird action. For example, let’s say you broke a significant rule at work. Instead of owning to the wrong, you begin to clean the entire building in hopes of garnishing favor from your boss. This type of scenario often happens with believers. Let’s say you are disobedient to God in some manner, and instead of apologizing and asking for forgiveness, you begin to perform random acts of “righteousness.” Your random acts may impress or positively impact the people around you, but between you and God develops a wall of disobedience that gets bigger and bigger.
David says it best in Psalm 51:16 and 17, “For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.” We need to stop exhausting ourselves with self-imposed missions and simply start communicating with God. Acts of religion may help you find favor with man, but with God, He only wants your heart. A humble heart is a teachable heart.
Tomorrow we will take the next step of preparation, but today, we are only talking to God about the need for walking in His forgiveness. Learn to start every day with a clean slate. Prepare your heart for what the day may hold with an acknowledgment of where you have wronged God. Psalm 32:5, “I acknowledge my sin to You and my iniquity I did not hide; I said ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord’ and You forgave the guilt of my sin.” God, I am asking You to cause my thoughts to be agreeable with Your will.

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L. Kathleen Cline

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