Fix My Heart!
“Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain.”
Today’s Text: Psalm 119:33-48 (Living Life Daily Devotional)
My heart can turn toward the word of God, or it can turn toward selfish gain. Is it really so black and white? I have come to believe that it is, but accepting that truth takes a leap of faith.
I mean, it takes NO leap of faith to know that our hearts turn toward selfish gain by default. If we can be really honest with ourselves, we would come to see that “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure” (Jeremiah 19:9). The human heart will stop at nothing to get what it wants, even if it knows that pursuing what it wants may be bad for others and even the self. And there is evidence—even if only in my thoughts and emotions—that my heart turns toward selfish gain every single day of my life.
On the other hand, it does take a leap of faith to believe that the word of God is “a perfect treasure of divine instruction” (BFM 2000). It takes a leap of faith to believe that the Bible has “God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter” (BFM 2000). It takes a leap of faith to believe that “all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy” (BFM 2000).
And no one has a right to sneer at us evangelical Christians for taking that leap of faith. The smartest atheist philosophers in the world know that everything that everyone believes takes a leap of faith.
But my leap of faith is grounded in some historical evidence, too—incredibly solid historical evidence, as it turns out. Jesus Christ was resurrected from certain death to undeniable life.
Of course, accepting that historical evidence takes a big leap of faith, too. I won’t deny it. But again, accepting any historical evidence requires a leap of faith.
And so, living in a world where the very fabric of our existence requires a leap of faith, the Bible offers an explanation of the human experience that makes perfect sense to me now. Because knowing that my heart turns toward selfish gain by default and cannot do otherwise, no matter how hard I try, I need God to give my life meaning and to make my heart right.
Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
— Psalm 51:10
Father, You are the Author of my salvation, the Forgiver of my sin, and the Redeemer of my soul. You are the source of truth itself and of existence itself. Thank You for Your word. Thank You for Your revelation and Your promises that bring me hope. And I know in faith that my hope will be disappointed. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
