Mark 12:29-31
‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Mark 12:29-31 (ESV)
My dad taught me how to shoot and hunt. So far this season, the Lord has allowed me to harvest 2 deer (sorry if you are the anti-hunting type…you might want to skip this devotion and search for one a bit more environmentally friendly). In 30 years of hunting, I’ve probably harvested 40-50 deer or more. Only twice in 30 years have I not been able to locate a deer that I had shot. Both deer that I harvested (politically correct way to say “shot dead”) this year never took another step and neither deer suffered even for a second. Why is that? The reason is because my dad taught me where to aim. I have learned how to shoot just behind the shoulder and hit the deer in the heart without damaging the shoulder roast. I know what you’re thinking…where on earth is this gruesome devotion going?
I’ll tell you where I’m going. Did you know that deer hunters aren’t the only one’s aiming for the heart? The book of wisdom, Proverbs, commands each of us to guard our hearts above all else! God knows that once something or someone captures our heart, we won’t take another step for the Lord until we give Him back our heart. You see God wants our heart. He alone deserves our heart. He will not share our heart with anything or anyone. As a youth pastor and father of five, it grieves me to see young people give their hearts to so many different things instead of the Lord Jesus Christ. Young people are not the only ones who find themselves “taken out by a heart-shot.” The hearts of many adults have been hit by the trappings of this world…money, cars, hobbies, sports, fame, status, image, title, lust, food, alcohol, bitterness, revenge, and the list could go on and on.
Take some time and think about your heart. Are you aware that the enemy has a target on your heart? Is he having victory, or are you being successful to guard your heart? A great way to discern the condition of your heart is by considering how you spend your time, how you spend your money, and what consumes your thoughts. Take some time and ask the Lord to search your heart. Guard it with all diligence! -BP
Keep your heart with all diligence,
For out of it spring the issues of life.
-Prov. 4:23 (NKJV)
DPOD 