“Set your hearts on things above…
Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”
Colossians 3:1,2 (NIV84)
As we continue our focus on setting our hearts and minds on things above [Day 24], I want to turn to the Old Testament book of I Chronicles.
“I know, dear God, that You care nothing for the surface —You want us, our true selves —and so I have given from the heart, honestly and happily.
(I Chronicles 29:18-19, MSG).
And now see all these people doing the same, giving freely, willingly —what a joy!
O God, God of our fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, keep this generous spirit alive forever in these people always, keep their hearts set firmly in You.
And give my son Solomon an uncluttered and focused heart so that he can obey what You command, live by Your directions and counsel, and carry through with building The Temple for which I have provided,”
Keep Their Hearts Set Firmly in You
King David prayed the above toward the end of his reign.
- He was thankful God had allowed him to provide materials for the temple that was to be built for God though God was not allowing him to build it.
- He was thankful that the people of Israel were also giving out of a spirit of generosity toward the building of the temple.
- He was thankful God was going to have his son Solomon build the temple.
In his wisdom and experience, David knew that human hearts are fickle [marked by lack of steadfastness, constancy, or stability : given to erratic changeableness].
David prayed for the people.
He prayed:
- That God would KEEP this generous spirit alive in them always;
- That God would KEEP their hearts set firmly in Him.
David prayed for his son Solomon.
He prayed that God would GIVE Solomon an uncluttered and focused heart so Solomon could:
- Obey what God commanded;
- Live by God’s directions and counsel;
- Carry through with building the temple.
We will take a closer look at David’s prayer for Solomon in our next post; today’s is about what he prayed for the people.
We need God to keep our hearts set firmly in Him.
In a chapter entitled “Trusting Him to Keep You,” Andrew Murray writes in his book Abide in Christ:
“…The abiding in Christ is meant only for the weak and is so beautifully suited to their feebleness. It does not demand the doing of some great thing or that we first lead a holy and devoted life. No, it is simply weakness entrusting itself to a Mighty One to be kept — the unfaithful one casting self on One who is altogether trustworthy and true. Abiding in Him is not a work that we have to do as the condition for enjoying His salvation, but a consenting to let Him do all for us, in us, and through us. It is a work He does for us: the fruit and the power of His redeeming love. Our part is simply to yield, to trust, and to wait for what He has engaged to perform,”
(Abide in Christ, Whitaker House 1979, p.28).
Does any of the above describe your approach to life in Christ?
Would you say you are more comfortable:
| yielding, trusting, & waiting on God, |
| or striving to do some great thing, |
| or trying to “get your act together” to lead a holy and devoted life before Him? |
Murray describes the “trap” I once found myself in:
“The idea they have of grace is this:
(Murray, Abide in Christ, p.28-29).
That their conversion and pardon are God’s work but that now, in gratitude to God, it is their work to live as Christians and follow Jesus. There is always the thought of a work that has to be done, and even though they pray for help, still the work is theirs. They fail continually and become hopeless, and the despondency only increases the helplessness…
The grace to come and the grace to abide alike are from Him alone,”
What is your reaction to this?
With which idea of grace do you identify?
With the Spirit or by human effort?
Check out what Paul had to say to the Galatian church on this subject:
“Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?”
(Galatians 3:3, NIV).
In the NIV84:
“Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?”
And in The Message:
“Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren’t smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it?”
Murray sums up his thoughts this way:
“You are not under the law, with its inexorable DO, but under grace, with its blessed BELIEVE what Christ will do for you,”
(Abide in Christ, p.29).
Is this faith without works?
Some of you may be thinking, “What about James 2:14,18, ‘What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?’ … ‘But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds,’ (NIV).”
That’s what I thought, too! What I believe James and Andrew Murray and Paul and even David are saying is:
1) We have faith in God to work in & through us, AND
2) we work by obeying God in the faith that He will work in & through us.
Still puzzled?
You’re in good company! I like how C.S. Lewis puts it in Mere Christianity:
“The Bible really seems to clinch the matter when it puts the two things together into one amazing sentence. The first half is, ‘Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling‘ — which looks as if everything depended on us and our good actions: but the second half goes on, ‘For it is God who worketh in you‘ — which looks as if God did everything and we nothing.
I am afraid that is the sort of thing we come up against in Christianity. I am puzzled, but I am not surprised. You see, now we are trying to understand, and to separate into water-tight compartments, what exactly God does and what man does when God and man are working together. And, of course, we begin by thinking it is like two men working together, so that you could say, ‘He did this bit and I did that.’
But this way of thinking breaks down. God is not like that. He is inside you as well as outside: even if we could understand who did what, I do not think human language could properly express it. In the attempt to express it different Churches say different things. But you will find that even those who insist most strongly on the importance of good actions tell you you need Faith; and even those who insist most strongly on Faith tell you to do good actions. At any rate that is as far as I can go,”
(HarperCollins Edition 2001, p.149; Scripture reference: Phil. 2:12,13).
Here are a couple of excerpts from a prayer I wrote in 2014 as I was struggling with these concepts:
“When my heart is proud, I want to figure out a way to ‘make things right,’ I want to ‘make up’ for the wrong I’ve done, for my mistakes — trying to figure out how to fix something only God can fix is definitely a recipe for strife! I want to trust You, Lord God…”
“I know ‘the blood of Jesus Christ [Your] Son cleanses us from all sin’ (I John 1:7), so I am a cleansed person wondering what to do in a stressful situation caused by a combination of circumstances, shortcomings, & our own sin. In my spirit, I hear You saying, ‘Trust Me.'”
So who does the heart setting?
Paul says: “Set your hearts on things above.”
David prays: “O God… Keep their hearts set firmly in You.”
We need to set our hearts, AND we need to ask God to keep our hearts set.
Day 25 SONG
“Yet Not I but Through Christ in Me” is a song we sing regularly in our church congregation. It is a modern hymn by the Australian worship team CityAlight, one of my new favorite groups. I love the way the lyrics aptly blend our role and God’s role in our new life hidden with Christ in God! Let the truth of the words wash over you.