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From touchandchange.com Ask Jeff A Heart Like His The Bible says that David was a “man after God’s own heart” He testified concerning him: 'I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.' (Acts 13:22)
So the question is…when the Bible says “heart” what exactly is Scripture talking about?
This question emerged from the series of Celebration Worship events at CCC entitled LOST : The Series and the series of Sonrise Bible Studies entitled: The Lost Experience
With that in mind we examine the heart….so here are a few thoughts to help you understand what Scripture is saying in this brief Bible Study
The Heart
The heart is the center or gathering place for those qualities that make us who we are…the deepest part of our personality
The heart needs principles and programs…but these are not the things that cause the heart to respond. (The church is extremely effective in providing programs in hopes that life transformation will take place) The heart needs passion. Principles and programs that do not inspire or ignite passion become lost in the meaningless flow of information.
The heart of God is understood in much the same way…when we think about the “heart of God” we are thinking about the core, the essence of all those qualities (that we can understand) that make God who He really is.
To understand the “heart of God” is to understand that He is not a series of principles and programs, but indeed His heart is a heart of passion. That passion of course is a God-Passion that defines the way He is, the way He relates, and the way He loves. There is no other way to describe what He has done for us and how He has displayed His love for us. Passion is the characteristic that I think describes God’s heart as clearly as anything else. The other characteristics fit in there somewhere, but understanding that God is passionate about us is vital.
So, a heart like His is a passionate heart.
The principles that help us understand His heart hopefully will allow us to choose to ignite within us a desire…a real genuine desire to have a heart like His. When that happens, we begin to change, really change at our core and the essence of who we are begins to line up with the essence of who He is. In other words He becomes the central part of the story of the world, our lives, and of all eternity.
Throughout Scripture the Bible is much more concerned with the heart, not in the physical sense, but in the spiritual sense. The Hebrew word for heart is leb or LAYB (which in some cases might also be translated as “mind”) and the word shows us over 850 times in the Old Testament alone. It is considered as the source or well spring of life, and Jesus agreed with this Old Testament assessment
Mark 7:21-23: For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean.' "
While followers have the same physical heart that others have, there is something that is a God-thing that occurs when people make the choice to follow…
Acts 15:9 He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith.
Our hearts are purified by faith and we get newness, a new lease on life. The new spiritual heart, a new center of our character, a new source of passion is the end result.
Hopefully that will help you understand how important and significant it is when we read the words... "a heart like His"
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