Heart Pain and Obedience

The world stops when you feel chest pain. That tight pressure builds and makes it hard to breathe. You might ignore a stumped toe or some minor health issue, but chest pain must be taken seriously. This is true in the physical and spiritual realms.

In today’s world of “religion” its easy to have your heart’s arteries clogged with good intentions or religious actions that may make you feel good but are actually dangerous. This is why the wise writer Proverbs said to “guard your heart with all diligence.”
Guarding your heart being watchful so that anything contrary to peace, love, or joy is avoided. It means to follow hard after God and trust Him to take care of you. To consider your heart is also to consider your actions that seem good but might not be. One such deception that easily slips into our heart is the idea that the Creator wants us to obey Him. Don’t you think that God just wants your obedience? We’ve allowed this mindset to harden our hearts into believing that God wants us to just obey. This isn’t totally true.

Doing the right action is not the pathway to pleasing the Almighty. We don’t earn our place in heaven, no matter how observant we are. Our spiritual standing is not based on us memorizing the worship service so the “amen” is said at just the right time. Somehow, we have come to believe that when God looks down from heaven upon us, He measures our obedience on a scale. We reason falsely that, if we are doing good then, God will honor us and we are okay. We’ve come to believe, post on social media, and even tell others that God wants us to comply with His commandments. Is this really accurate though? When God looks from heaven, He is not looking in judgment towards our obedience only. He does not desire us to be robots, who blindly follow to just comply with a list of expectations. God doesn’t just want our obedience. What God desires is a clean heart. He wants you, in totality. He wants your life. Totally. Fully. The Lord wants your heart, your soul, and your devotion. He doesn’t need your service or religiosity.

A healthy heart is open and not constricted. Being open to the Lord means that you surrender your will first and then allow Him to change your ways. The Lord doesn’t get a thrill from our obedience when He doesn’t have our heart. Sure, we can learn to be holy. We can memorize all of Paul’s words, we can even keep the Old Testament Law, or quote the Beatitudes. But if we don’t totally give our life to Him then, all the good works we do are just that – good works and nothing else! It isn’t the actions that earn us points in heaven; it is our heart condition that is most important. What pleases Him is the fact that our souls and very lives have been yielded to His plan. The Lord wants us to submit our life entirely to Him. That is how you guard your heart so that it stays healthy.