Cardiac Check
Deuteronomy 6:5-6
“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.”
As uncomfortable as it may be, Deuteronomy 6:5 demands that we do a cardiac catheterization of our hearts today, a thorough examination of the sinews and synapses of our ambitions, testing the inner workings of our desires, inspecting the arteries of our motives, to see whether that spiritual arrythmia we feel from time to time is rooted in our human weakness or rooted in a deeper, more critical problem.
Why do you follow God’s commands today, friend? What drives and fuels your actions? Is it because you’re terrified that if you don’t obey God, He’ll throw you into hell for all eternity? Is your love for Him more a fear of getting on His bad side? Or, if it isn’t that, do you find yourself doing good “Christian” things and persisting with weekly churchy routines because you feel that pulling yourself away will only cause you even greater trouble? That is, do you love God practically so that you can keep the peace with your parents or your spouse or your business associates or your friends? Do you show up to the prayer meeting on Wednesday nights and the Bible study on Friday mornings and the church sanctuary on Sundays because the stress of keeping the faith is less than the stress of leaving it and being ostracized by your community? Or, if that isn’t it, do you seek God as much in private as you do in public? Do you love being holy like Him or being holy in others’ eyes? Are you a structured person, a rule-follower, someone who thrives in business and in leisure with a specified itinerary, and, just like the Pharisees of old, you can check off all the boxes at the end of the week and get gold stars from your constituents and lead at the forefront of ecclesiastical positions not because you love the heart behind the Word but because you’re good at checking off boxes?
Allow the Great Physician to diagnose anything in your heart today that needs rooting out, friend, and don’t leave that operating table of prayer until surgery is completed.