Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer. Psalm 19:14, ESV

 

When you wake up on a Monday morning, struggling to emerge from the cocoon of sleep, what comes first to your mind? Sometimes thoughts, related fears or anxieties about what the new week holds, try to crowd in, creating dread in those waking moments.

 

But then, through our semi-consciousness, God cuts in – with a verse or a song – and, inspired, a surge of joy stirs in your spirit despite your sleepiness – enough to carry you for as long as you allow it as he becomes the focus, the “meditation of my heart” and his peace enters our being as we wait with him to prepare for the day.

 

The focus of our hearts always matters, because it shapes our minds. When thoughts take root they have a way of working into our words, and then our actions. So again, we’re reminded of the importance of guarding our hearts and keeping them pure – as Jeremiah tells us, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick”. (Jeremiah17:9a) And God searches the heart and tests the mind, rewarding us justly according to what we have done. (Jeremiah 17:10)

 

When we confess our sins to God, we acknowledge that we sin against him – in thought, word and deed, and in what we have left undone. A heart made right before God, then, doesn’t stop at confession – it moves outward, into how we treat others: releasing grudges, refusing revenge, and choosing grace where we could choose harm.

 

Being alive to God means being sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit who assists us in giving of our very best to him in all things, enabling us to speak words, and have minds, worthy of him, aware that we fly hs flag in our hearts so that the world may see his love in the way that we live, work and go about our business. And just as Christ Jesus died once to sin for us all, and “lives to God” so we, also, “must consider [ourselves] dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 6:11)

 

Being alive to God means more than receiving forgiveness; it means extending it to others also. Jesus taught his disciples to pray, “Forgive us the wrongs we have done, as we forgive the wrongs that others have done to us.” (Matthew 6:12, GNT) Having been forgiven so completely ourselves, how can we withhold forgiveness from others?

 

Philip Yancey says that “the only thing harder than forgiveness is the alternative.”

 

A guarded, bitter heart may feel like self-protection, but it slowly poisons the one who carries it. Paul points to wise and constructive action – acceptable in God’s sight – as he urges the Ephesians not to grieve the Holy Spirit, but instead to “be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave [us].” (Ephesians 4:30,32)

 

Prayer: Lord, my rock, make me alive to you always. May my heart shine with your love, always willing to forgive others as freely as you have forgiven me. Amen