1/28/2024 0 Comments Prayer pure hearts and minds![]() But in all the situations of our lives we don’t have direct access to our heart, but must use our minds (thoughts and feelings) to get a hold of our will, make an intention to engage with God and his kingdom, and put our choice into motion/action. We can think of our “spiritual formation” in Christ as interacting with God in the renovation of our heart or the forming of our spirit or will. The spirit that trusts God and is brought to life through faith in Christ by God’s Spirit, is well-directed in spiritual fervor, rejoicing to overflow with love for God and others, including strangers and enemies. The healthy heart is soft soil that is as receptive to God as the good soil is to seed: listening, trusting, and responding to his initiative by sprouting with loving obedience. ![]() The proud heart is hard and unreceptive to God – because it hasn’t trusted in Christ it is dead. As we connect with Christ we come alive with his abundant, eternal, God-kind of life. God sends his Word and Spirit to us and we respond by putting our faith (trust and confidence, leaning the whole weight of our being) in Christ. It is in the heart (spirit or will) that real change must begin. God has created us to take dominion with him and for him in his kingdom, to be creative under him (Genesis 1). Spirit is unbodily personal power – the power we have in life to choose, take initiative, and express creativity. It is only with our heart that we can genuinely love and worship and this is why our praise and service mean nothing to God if they don’t come from our heart.Īn important clarification is that the heart, as the Bible speaks of it, is not our feelings, but our power to choose a course of action. ![]() The heart with its intentions is the eternal core of our being and the precious part of us that distinguishes us as creatures made in God’s image only God and human beings have a spirit. To call it will is to say that it has the power of choice or the ability to originate a course of action.) So we are essentially asking God to transform us in one area when we pray, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me… Grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” (Psalm 51:10, 12) To call it heart is to emphasize that it is central and sensitive. (To call it spirit is to refer to it as nonbodily personal power. In Biblical terms the human heart is essentially the same as our spirit and in practical terms it refers to our will. In his Greatest Commandment Jesus teaches us, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength… and love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:30-31). This article on the heart is part of a series from my class for counselors on “How People Change.” (See my other articles on the thoughts, feelings, body, social, and soul.) It is inspired by Dallas Willard’s book, Renovation of the Heart. In Jesus’ name, Amen.This is an updated version of a Bible study I did in 2006 on the role of the heart/spirit/will in spiritual formation in Christ. Give them the courage to make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with You (2 Peter 3:14).įather, I pray my children would keep their hands clean of working any harm, their heart purified of any evil way, their souls undefiled, and their mouths void of causing pain (Psalm 24:3-4). Ground them so completely in Your love and wisdom that they have no desire to pursue any relationship or activity that could lead them to harm. Create in them pure hearts and steadfast spirits (Psalm 51:10). ![]() Help them avoid any kind of sexual immorality, teach them to control their minds and bodies in ways that are pleasing in Your sight (1 Thessalonians 4:3-4). Cover them, Lord, with a blanket spotlessness, guarding them from the habits and mindsets of the world.įather, I pray You would work Your sanctification in each of my children. A Prayer that Your Child Would Lead a Pure Lifeĭear Heavenly Father, I lift my children to You asking that You would give them a desire to keep themselves pure in body, heart, and mind.
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