Verse: Jeremiah 29:13
13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.
Devotional Thoughts:
The Bible has a lot to say about the heart. But so does our culture.
It’s interesting that the Word of God and our culture today really present two completely opposite ideas when it comes to the heart. Most of the cultural advice about the heart has to do with following your heart and trusting your heart. Hollywood and Disney has really portrayed the heart as a guide that we ought to follow. The Bible, on the other hand, is completely different. It speaks of the heart as something that cannot be trusted – it’s deceitful and sinful.
John Mayer has eloquently, if not accidentally, captured a lot of truth about the heart in his song “Half of my Heart.” He’s singing a song about this girl that he loves. In the song, he basically says that half of his heart is all about her, half of his heart can’t stop loving her. But his last line of the song then circles back and says that half of his heart is the part of a man who’s never truly loved anything.
And that song illustrates the fickle, erratic, and inconsistent part of our hearts. The part of our hearts that loves something, until we don’t anymore. It’s not hard to notice this. That’s part of the reason we see great athletes who’ve played a particular sport their entire lives turn down college scholarships and decide not to play college ball. It’s part of the reason why around 75% of college students change their major after they begin college. It’s part of the reason why around 40-50% of marriages end in divorce. There’s an inconsistent part of our hearts that loves something, until we don’t anymore.
And those examples just illustrate that while our hearts may make the subject of a good song, a good movie, or a good catchphrase, they really make for terrible guides.
Points to Ponder:
What we really need is what the Lord offers to us, and that is a brand new heart. God says in Ezekiel 11:19, “And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh…”
Paul echoes this idea in 2 Cor. 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” When we come to know Jesus, we are transformed. We’re given a new heart, we’re a new creation, we’re born again. Jesus is all about making things new.
And even then, we are called to focus our hearts on God. To seek Him with all of our hearts. Only with a heart that is focused on God will we ever truly find joy, contentment, satisfaction – all the things that the culture promises if we would just follow our heart.
