Joshua 24:23
“Now then, do away with the foreign gods which are in your midst, and incline your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel.”
The foreign gods and idols were things we gravitated towards or things we thought could bring us some benefit. Not so. We learned that they were empty or worse, something that would imprison us.
God created us to serve Him. If we put something else in His place, then we are submitting ourselves to another. The human heart gravitates towards disfunction.
God is a good God. He loves us and seeks to free us from all sorts of bondage. We all have things that can enslave us (John 3:34). God wants to free us from those things. That freedom comes when we submit ourselves to Him (John 8:36). It’s a little paradoxical. To be truly free we need to submit ourselves to His lordship.
The second half of today’s verse says to “incline our hearts to the Lord”. This was concerning as a young christian. I was raised in the church. However, it offered much guilt. I knew God wasn’t a tyrant, but there were many shoulds. My mind would suggest many things that I should be doing if I were a good christian. It wouldn’t stop. There was always more I should be doing. I felt forced to incline my heart.
However, I began to learn about grace. First He died for my sins and gave us salvation freely. It couldn’t be earned. That weight was lifted. But to remain in Him I still felt obligated. I can recall hearing a friend say that “God doesn’t work that way.” Good, but how does He work?
2 Corinthians 9:7 was the verse that brought the sunlight. “Each one should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not out of regret or compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver.” Most things I was doing was out of regret or compulsion. I scaled back several activities. I would ask if I wanted to do this? I had been doing things as duty that I wasn’t clear what I wanted to do and what I was forced to do. The fog was beginning to lift.
The bible talks about getting a new heart when we are born again. He gives us new desires. Galatians 5:16,17 speaks of that, “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh craves what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are opposed to each other, so that you do not do what you want.” The Holy Spirit puts cravings in us. We want Him and His ways. I began to tap into those.
One example is that we love His Word. I am doing my scripture journaling now. I love this. It’s a great part of my day. My heart is inclined to His Word. Being in His Word is important. As we read it the seeds of His words are planted in our hearts. They spark with His desires and the fruit of the Holy Spirit grows. Those fruits are “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control”. At the end of this list in Galatians 5:23 it says, “against such things there is no law”.
Our lives in Christ are to be a relationship. I have learned that I can trust Him. Of all of the “out to’s”, most weren’t from Him. The ones that are, I wanted to do. There is an attraction to Him and His Word. It’s easy to incline my heart to Him.
I have learned that He is so patient. Hebrews 5:11,12 points out a sad truth, “Concerning him we have much to say, and it is difficult to explain, since you have become poor listeners. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the actual words of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.” These are willfully not inclined to grow much. We can have that tendency. Like some students in school have no interest in learning particular topics. So, they put little effort into growing in Christ. Lord, let that not be us.
Thank You, Lord, for all Your goodness and Your love. It’s a blessing to walk with You and to have our hearts joined to Yours.
