What God has written in your heart?
All too often, what’s in our hearts has been put there by the world. It seems like everyone and everything is trying to influence us one way or another. But the important thing is what God has written in your heart.
Hey, I’m curious. How much time do you spend studying the Bible? What motivates your Bible study and how you go about it?
Do you research specific words or themes? Do you have a plan to read so many verses or pages a day? Do you try to memorize verses that are important to you? Or do you just open up the Bible at random and read whatever your eyes fall on?
If you’re like me, you’ve probably done all these at one point or another. These are just a few ways to study the Bible. There are so many more, like learning the original Hebrew and Greek words, reading books and taking classes.
But the all come back to getting to know the Bible.
Memorizing Bible verses
When I was a little kid in Sunday School, my teachers always encouraged us to memorize verses and passages like
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 NIV
And then there were the Ten Commandments, the 23rd Psalm, and the Beatitudes, just to name a few. And I got to where I could repeat most of these, although for some reason I had a hard time getting the Beatitudes in the right order.
Obviously the idea was for us to know these and other Bible verses by heart, remember, and obey them each day.
Well, it’s one thing to memorize the Ten Commandments, for example. It’s another thing to obey them.
An important lesson from my mother
When I was in about the 5th or 6th grade, I said or did something very disrespectful to my mother. I was really angry about something. I don’t even remember what it was now, but what I did was totally inappropriate and completely broke the 5th Commandment.
Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you. Exodus 20:12 NIV
My mother said she was going to tell my dad as soon as he got home. I snapped out of whatever I was angry about and realized I was in serious trouble.
My dad was a wonderful man and had a deep faith in God, but I tried his faith and his patience on more than one occasion as a child. I was afraid of what the consequences would be when he got home.
I begged my mother not to tell him. I bargained. I pleaded.
Suddenly, there was not quite a twinkle in her eye, but I could see she was about to make some kind of deal with me.
She told me that if I would memorize the Ten Commandments – not the short kids’ version, but the full King James Version – and repeat them to her, she wouldn’t tell my dad what I had done.
Let me tell you, that was 100 times more motivation to learn the Ten Commandments than I’d ever had in Sunday School.
Learning to talk to God
She also told me I needed to talk to God, tell Him I was sorry, and ask Him to forgive me.
Now, I knew about and believed in God and I “said my prayers.” We read and talked about lots of Bible stories in our home. But I had never talked directly to God before. And so, to the best of my ability, I told God I was sorry and asked Him to forgive me.
I don’t remember getting a response, but it was my first effort at actually communicating with God directly. And it planted a seed of talking to God that has blossomed over the years.
So, I memorized the Commandments and recited most of them to my mom.
I am so grateful for the way my mother instilled in me the importance of the Commandments. And as far as I know, she never mentioned this incident to my dad. And she never said anything about it to me either.
Looking back on this incident now from my perspective as a parent, I marvel at the whole thing and the way she handled it.
This experience reminds me of a wonderful passage in Jeremiah that has been very meaningful to me for many years.
What God will put in your heart
Jeremiah is prophesying of God’s enduring love for the children of Israel, even though they have repeatedly disobeyed and forsaken His commandments.
“The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD.
“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD. Jeremiah 31:31-34 NIV
Think about that for a minute! God is writing His law in your heart. That is far different than you or me writing it there, as I did when my mom had me memorize the Ten Commandments.
Now don’t get me wrong, it’s important to learn Scriptures and even memorize passages. You may remember my interview with Keith Ferrin, Episode 144 – Finding Your Identity in the Bible. Keith memorizes entire books of the Bible and recites them out loud so he can hear the whole message of that particular book.
But again, there’s a difference between you writing the Scriptures or God’s law on your heart and God writing them there.
It is so important that God’s law be inscribed in our hearts, in our affections.
God’s law needs to be written in your heart
Deuteronomy brings this out. Moses says to the children of Israel,
These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Deuteronomy 6:6 NIV
This is obviously a metaphor about having a deep abiding affection for God’s laws, not in a legalistic sense of just obeying a bunch of rules, but in the sense of imbibing the essence of God’s laws, to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself.
There are times in both the Old and New Testaments when it becomes painfully obvious that people have either rejected God’s law completely, or they have learned the letter of the law but are far from obeying the spirit of God’s commands.
Some hearts are far from God
God rebukes this attitude:
The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught. Isaiah 29:13 NIV
That sounds pretty relevant even today.
Jesus felt the same way about some of the religious leaders of his day. In fact, he quotes this passage from Isaiah in Mark and adds a few choice remarks of his own.
He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’
You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.” And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! Mark 7:6-9 NIV
Are obeying God’s commands or the human rules and traditions?
The irony of the situation is that these same Pharisees had just rebuked Jesus because his disciples had not followed some of the Jewish ceremonial traditions of washing their hands before eating.
“Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?” Mark 7:5 NIV
No wonder Jesus would say to them,
And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? Matthew 15:3 NIV
We need to ask ourselves that question every once in a while.
The simple answer for why the Pharisees acted the way they did, is that the deep spiritual meaning of God’s law – love – was not written on their hearts, in their affections.
Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for this in very strong language,
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. Matthew 23:23 NIV
This is often the reason we don’t obey the laws of God: we are following traditions, the man-made doctrines about God.
What have other people written in your heart?
We’re told with great authority in sermons, books, Bible studies, and podcasts what to believe, how we should live our lives, as true Christians. I do this a little bit on the podcast. But if you compare all these instructions, they don’t all agree.
If you’re just doing what someone else tells you, in regard to your faith, without doing your own Bible study and seeking God’s direction in prayer through the Holy Spirit, you’re not necessarily obeying God’s commands.
Does that mean we shouldn’t listen to sermons and podcasts or go to Bible studies? Of course not.
I’m grateful you’re listening right now to The Bible Speaks to You Podcast. But I never want you to take what I say as the final word of authority on anything.
My hope is that you’ll read the Bible for yourself. Let it speak to you directly. That’s what this podcast is all about, the Bible speaks to you.
But as I said, there are lots of Christians who speak with great self-assurance telling you exactly what to believe and what to do. And they paint alarming pictures of what will happen if you don’t believe and do exactly as they say.
Teaching through love or fear?
They may be teaching the precepts of God, and maybe some of their own precepts, through fear instead of love. They are trying to write things on your heart instead of letting God do it. This is the exact opposite of how Jesus taught and preached.
Do you believe in God because someone told you to? Did they scare you into believing because of what they say will happen if you don’t believe? Or did they introduce you to God through love?
Whatever the case, the ultimate way to learn about God and to know God is to communicate directly with Him.
Even if someone has a crystal clear awareness of God in their own lives and shares that with you – and that is wonderful when it happens – you still need to nurture your own direct relationship with God.
This is why God says in that passage from Jeremiah I quoted earlier, “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD.” Jeremiah 31:33, 34
God will teach you
No person will have to teach you and you will not need to teach anyone else who God is. God will inscribe His law, His nature as Love itself, in the hearts of all mankind.
It’s easy to think of this happening way off in the future. But it’s also going on right now.
Does this mean you never need to tell someone about God or share the gospel of Christ? Of course not. Jesus told his disciples, and that includes you and me,
Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Mark 16:15 NIV
The question is, are you preaching what someone else has written in your heart or what God has written in your heart?
You might be saying the exact same words, but the more you share your faith based on what God has done in your life and has written in your heart, instead of just trying to convince someone to believe a certain thing someone told you that’s what you should believe, you’ll help others to become aware of what God is writing in their hearts.
God is and already has written in your heart
God is writing His law of love in your heart this very moment. He is instilling in your affections His nature, all His qualities and attributes, including His love for all His children.
And it may not seem like it, we may not see it, but God is doing this with all mankind.
It’s only natural then, for you to feel love for all mankind, including yourself, in addition to your love for God.
I love this verse from
You have put gladness in my heart, Psalm 4:7 NKJV
Fill in the blank with gratitude, love, wisdom, mercy. Think of all the things God puts in your heart.
My mother told me to memorize the Ten Commandments. Your pastor can tell you to follow and obey Christ. I can tell you to be more loving.
Ponder what God has written in your heart
And we can endeavor to follow this guidance. But as helpful as these human intentions and instructions are to bring us closer to God, I encourage you to become increasingly aware of, not what you or others have written in your heart, but what God has, is, and will write in your heart.
This is a promise God has made to you. Just a few verses later in the passage I already quoted from Jeremiah,
And I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good for them. I will put a desire in their hearts to worship me, and they will never leave me. Jeremiah 32:40 NLT
Let that soak in, way down deep in your heart. God is putting a desire in your heart to have a deep meaningful relationship with Him. Because that’s the desire in His heart, to have a deep meaningful relationship with you. You can’t accomplish this through human will, determination, or intellect or being coerced by others. God is writing His law of love in your heart. Why? Because He loves you.
I encourage you to ponder quietly what God has already written in your heart. Think of the love and the joy He has put there. What about the spirit of forgiveness and patience, wisdom and understanding.
But that’s just the beginning. God is writing His law of love in your heart every day, in a language you understand.
Photo Credit: Rustam Mussabekov
_____________
James Early, the Jesus Mindset Coach, is a Bible teacher, speaker, and podcaster. He conducts Bible workshops online and in person. His focus is on getting back to the original Christianity of Jesus by embracing the mindset of Christ in daily life. Contact him here.
Subscribe to the podcast Make a donation to support the show
_____________
Bible References
John 3:16 NIV
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Exodus 20:12 NIV
12 Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
Jeremiah 31:31-34 NIV
31 The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.
32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD.
33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
34 No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD.
Deuteronomy 6:6 NIV
6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.
Isaiah 29:13 NIV
13 The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.
Mark 7:6-9 NIV
6 He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
7 They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’
8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.”
9 And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!
Mark 7:5 NIV
5 “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?”
Matthew 15:3 NIV
3 And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?
Matthew 23:23 NIV
23 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.
Mark 16:15 NIV
15 Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.
Psalm 4:7 NKJV
7 You have put gladness in my heart,
Jeremiah 32:40 NLT
40 And I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good for them. I will put a desire in their hearts to worship me, and they will never leave me.
