I Want Your Heart: The Next Door of Opportunity
Do you ever put pressure on yourself? Maybe a work project has got you overwhelmed, or you set expectations for a particular relationship. You hope things go a certain way or try to wear multiple hats simultaneously.
Me too. Beyond daily responsibilities and activities, I hold myself to high standards in emotional, relational, and spiritual matters.
I frequently tell myself and others (including God), that I just need to be better. I should be improving this or doing that.
I was weighing this (as I often do), when I had an unmistakable inner dialogue. Upon thinking “I just need to be better,” I felt God’s truth penetrate my spirit. “That’s not what I want from you. I want your heart.”
It wasn’t an arbitrary whisper; Scripture affirms it!
The oft-quoted words of God from 1 Samuel make it clear: “The LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart” (16:7).
In Zechariah 1:3, God implores His people, “Return to me, says the LORD of hosts, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts.”
The cry resurfaces again and again.
“‘Return, faithless Israel, declares the LORD.
I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, declares the LORD; I will not be angry forever’ … ‘Return, O faithless sons; I will heal your faithlessness.’”
– Jeremiah 3:12, 22
“Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God,
For you have stumbled because of your iniquity.”
– Hosea 14:1
“‘Yet even now,’ declares the LORD, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.’ Return to the LORD your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and He relents over disaster.”
– Joel 2:12-13
He wants ourselves, not our sacrifices. Paul advocates offering our bodies as living sacrifices through spiritual worship, which God regards as holy and acceptable (Romans 12:1).
And we know from Hebrews 11:6, “Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.”
So yes, God desires us to be like Him, but not merely outwardly—rather, wholeheartedly.
God’s Provision: Deuteronomy 4:29 promises, “You will seek the LORD your God and you will find him, if you search after Him with all your heart and with all your soul.” He is able to be found, and in fact wants us to find Him!
Word of the Week: Guileless. Innocent and without deception. Jesus says the pure in heart will see God (Matthew 5:8), for indeed, God delights in the humble (Psalm 149:4). Our Triune God values sincerity (2 Corinthians 6:6, 1 Timothy 1:5).
Of course I should be better; we all should. But, Christ made a way; He is the Way. And now, genuine holiness and obedience from the heart is what He desires out of us.
Abby
Dear Younger Me,
Learn to set boundaries for yourself. Your people-pleasing, perfectionist nature makes you believe you have to do everything. But you don’t. You can say no to going out. You can press pause on the dishes. You can let that sport go to give yourself a break. You can choose rest for yourself, and you’re probably going to find that you need it. Listen to yourself when you feel overloaded so you can take a step back. And the beautiful thing is, is that you’re still just as loved. Saying no or taking a break from a task doesn’t make your loved ones love you less. Sure, there might be hopes for you to do this or that, but ultimately, they love you. And as you read about Jesus, you will realize that He withdrew from the crowds of people following Him, and though teaching and healing and being with the people were all really good things, the times He removed Himself to be with God were what He needed. And It’s important for you to do the same.
Love,
Megan
It’s amazing to me how loneliness can creep into a crowd. You could be surrounded by dozens, hundreds, maybe thousands of people, and still feel like you’re the only one. Or maybe it’s just me.
Some of us struggle with loneliness more than others. I can’t say I know true isolation, but I have certainly experienced disheartening feelings of separation and seclusion.
Aloneness is an enemy tactic, inflicted with a single-minded objective: steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). Truth be told, however—we are never alone because God is always with us.
The age-old promise still stands: “It is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you” (Deuteronomy 31:6).
Hebrews 13 adds, “So we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” (verse 6).
The Rock of ages, God of Hosts, goes before, with, behind, and around His people at all times.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.
– Isaiah 43:2
Even when we wish to flee or hide, He is unescapable.
If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
– Psalm 139:8
In fact, at humanity’s darkest and furthest, He did not abandon us. Instead, He sent His Son, conceived of a virgin and born into a world of sin, surrounded by sinners whom He set out to save. Immanuel, God with us.
Even when He left again (temporarily), ascending from this earth to resume His place at the Father’s right hand in heaven, Jesus left the gawking disciples with this pledge: “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).
Now, the Holy Spirit is our Comforter. He teaches us and brings to remembrance that which we have been taught (John 14:26). He intercedes on our behalf (Romans 8:26) and guarantees our future inheritance (Ephesians 1:13). He is a daily Helper and eternal reminder.
Truly, God is with us—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
God’s Provision: God is ever-present; His very presence is our provision! He helps us in trouble (Psalm 46:1), remains beside us in the valley (Psalm 23:4), attends to our prayers (Psalm 66:19), delivers us from distress (Psalm 107:28), grasps our hands (Isaiah 41:13), calms our fears (Psalm 34:4), sustains our lives (Psalm 55:22), protects our wellbeing (Psalm 91:14), gives counsel (Psalm 16:7), and ministers to our hearts (Psalm 119:76).
Word of the Week: All. God is all. He has a myriad of names, multitudinous roles. I AM deserves and lives up to every single one, among us, for us, so we never pass a single moment alone.
Dear Younger Me,
Trust God today. Your heart and your mind might not know what to do, but God does. You’re trying to figure it all out and you can’t. Sit at the feet of Jesus and let Him fill you, let Him teach you. And let the worry and the planning and the figuring it out rest in His hands as He holds you. Remember the story of Martha and Mary in the Bible as Jesus spoke to Martha’s anxious heart. He pointed out that Mary knew what was good. She chose Jesus. Martha, while trying to serve Jesus, was focused on the serving and lost sight of just being with Him. So sit with him, look up to Him, trust Him today and every day.
Love,
Megan
If you’ve ever searched for words to adequately describe a person or experience … Then you’ve encountered the limitation of language when it comes to capturing grandiose ideas. At times life is inexpressibly amazing or unfathomably tragic.
Sometimes I have trouble accurately describing my time in Ecuador. How much I love my family is hard to put into words. And when it comes to talking about God, He is far beyond my capacity.
God is truly like no one else I have ever known, or ever will!
Jeremiah 10:6 says, “There is none like you, O LORD; you are great, and your name is great in might.” My heart can do nothing but exalt God simply for being God.
“Who is like the LORD our God?” Psalm 113 asks. He is seated on high, with full visibility to and control over heaven and earth. He uplifts the poor and needy, honoring them with dignity and treasure. He blesses the barren woman with children, turning her desperation into joyful pleasure (verses 5-9).
Another servant of God breaks into praise in Micah 7:18.
Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of His inheritance? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in steadfast love.
God’s character and work are unquantifiable. We could chatter unceasingly, filling all of eternity with stories of who God is and what He has done. We could write endless pages of chronicles, expend all the worlds’ ink, and still only have compiled a fraction of His marvels.
You have multiplied, O LORD my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told.
– Psalm 40:5
The apostle John says something similar in his account of Jesus’ earthly ministry. “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did,” he notes toward the end of his Gospel. “Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written” (21:25).
Is that not amazing?!
Even more, we can be assured that God does not resemble human beings. Numbers 23:19 emphasizes, “God is not man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not fulfill it?”
God’s Provision: Praise the Lord, He is far above us! Nothing can stop Him, for He holds complete authority and right over all things, ever. Isaiah reminds us, “For the LORD of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back?” (14:27).
Word of the Week: Boundless. God is unlimited, unrestricted, unrestrained. He is supreme—in holiness, majesty, wisdom, and glory, to name only a few. Matchless, sovereign, and omnipotent, God fills all in all (Ephesians 1:23).
Surely, there is none like Him!
Abby
Dear Younger Me,
You don’t need to be thanked. In serving others, of course it feels good when someone tells you they appreciate what you did. But, when you expect them to say thank you or rely on that affirmation to feel good, that isn’t right. I know you want to be appreciated and recognized, but that isn’t the heart of humility that Jesus displayed. He didn’t want the disciples to tell him “thank you” after He washed their feet, but he wanted to show His love for them and give them an example of how to serve each other. It didn’t matter how they responded at all.
So when you serve, do so out of love for Christ and out of love for the one you are serving. And remember before God that service to Him does not mean He owes you anything, because without Jesus, you would owe Him everything. Luke 10:17 says, “‘So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”
He calls you to serve, so serve, expecting nothing, not even a thank you in return.
Love,
Megan
Have you ever been resistant to something? You give a hard no, dig your heels in, deny it as long as possible …
Hopefully I’m not the only one! I don’t want to admit this, but I am a bit hard-hearted when it comes to a particular area of my life. I want to do God’s will, I ask Him to lead me, but … well, that’s the problem.
But I’m scared. But it makes me uncomfortable. But I’ve never been there or done that before. I don’t know what’s ahead or care to find out.
Unfortunately, that’s my reality. And I have to be real about it in order to surrender and obey.
It is the desire of my heart to be moldable, cooperate with God, and follow eagerly where He leads. Why then would I draw a line in the sand and refuse to cross it?
Romans 8:7-8 says, “The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” But, it goes on: “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.”
Cue Galatians 5:16-17. “I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.”
The believer’s relentless battle comes to mind. Paul expresses (rather intensely) in Romans 7,
For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate … For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.
– Verses 15, 19
My sin can be just as much what I’m not doing as what I am doing. Reluctance and hesitancy prove my fleshly tendency to turn from God. They may not be grievances I am actively committing, but they are just as errant. In fact, I am knowingly (and stubbornly) withholding from God what is rightfully due Him.
That’s not good. But I have to be honest with myself, you, and ultimately God, in order to submit to His desires and let Him work on my heart.
God’s Provision: It seems like God’s patience is a well that never runs dry! He does with us like He did with Israel, as He showed them through a potter and the prophet Jeremiah.
And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do (18:4).
Word of the Week: Sculpt. Meaning carve or create, the original implication was to hollow out. I need to be emptied—scooped out, maybe!—so the Lord can give me a new heart
Abby
Dear Younger Me,
Keep going to church. There are Sundays you’d rather sleep in, you’d rather not dress up, you’d rather not sit and listen to a sermon. But that’s just where you need to be. You need to be where God’s people are, because that’s important. You need that time to sit and learn more of Him, to glorify Him, to be with Him. You aren’t perfect, and there will be Sundays you aren’t at church, but I hope that you will always value and prioritize to be there each week. It’ll seem revolutionary when it’s possible to watch church online, but I hope you’ll find that it’s just not the same as being there. And I think there’s something honorable to God about the commitment that it takes to get up, get ready, and go to the church itself. And you’ll realize someday that your favorite part of church is singing. There’s something so wonderful about singing with everyone else that you miss out on when you aren’t there with the body of Christ.
Don’t just go to church, either. Make it your home and your family. When you choose to get involved in the church and do life with its people, you realize how truly at home you can feel. It’s beautiful to walk into church to hands waving from friends and hear their hellos.
Hebrews 10:24-25 say, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” And Psalm 73:28 says, “But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds.” So keep going to church. It’s where you need to be.
Love,
Megan
It’s like the transformation between seasons, a home remodeling project, or the complete 180 your life has taken. Change is all around and within us, bringing about God’s redemption and restoration.
Day to day, that progress may not be evident. You don’t physically see your kids growing or watch the paint dry. And, at least for me, I find it difficult to recognize spiritual maturation in my heart when I live with myself every day.
But I am washed anew with comfort and gratitude when I receive Scripture’s truth.
As indeed He says in Hosea,
“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’
and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’
And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”
– Romans 9:25-26
God flips everything upside down and composes the most beautiful opposites! In Him everything has new meaning.
Isaiah 61 is one of many chapters about marvelous reversals. My spirit fixes on every word:
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion—to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified. They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.
And that’s not all!
God’s Provision: “Instead of our shame there shall be a double portion,” it goes on, “Instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot; therefore in the land they shall possess a double portion; they shall have everlasting joy.”
I find my own testimony between those lines, while also pondering Bible stories and fellow believers’ witness—testaments to God’s power, compassion, and love working in perfect harmony to achieve His good, acceptable, and perfect predetermined will (Romans 12:2).
Word of the Week: Garden. Eden marks the beginning of humanity; eternal paradise awaits as our promised destiny. What a luxuriant image of flourishing life—the kind that overtakes us when we give ourselves to Christ!
I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God,
for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation; He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations.
– Isaiah 61:10-11
Abby
Dear Younger Me,
Stuff is cool, but it’s just stuff. It’s awesome to have all the cool toys, and then when you get older, you’ll still want to hang onto that stuff because it’s yours and maybe your kids will play with them someday, but it’s simply just stuff. And those papers you’ll write throughout your years of school are awesome to hold onto for a time, maybe, but you’ll rarely look at them again. I know you’re afraid to get rid of stuff, because you might want to look back at something someday, whether for use or for the memories. Holding onto all the stuff for the fear that getting rid of it will be a bad idea is not helpful in the long run, because someday, you’re going to move into new homes and all that stuff has to be packed, transported, and stored. And you’ll realize that some of the things you’ve held onto aren’t worth saving.
You’ll learn as you get older what a nostalgic person you are, how you love the things of your past. But you really don’t need it all. And, what you donate or give away could be better used in someone else’s hands than yours. Someone you love will someday tell you that they love traveling light and not accumulating a lot of stuff. What a sweet thing to think about, as you remember that all this stuff will be left behind some day for the treasures stored up in Heaven (Matthew 6: 19-21).
Love,
Megan
