I really want to touch on the heart today. Many of you may be reading these daily posts and (besides thinking I'm nuts) believe that as long as your heart is "in the right place," that it doesn't matter to God what you eat, what holidays you observe, or what other things you may do or don't do.
God is ALLLLL about the heart. He desires a "circumcision" of the heart most of all. What is that? Scripture tells us that a physical circumcision was a sign of the covenant between Israel and God. So, we can infer that circumcision of the heart (a spiritual circumcision) is also a sign of our covenant.
Deuteronomy 30:6 tells us:
"Moreover YHWH your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love YHWH your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live."If you read the surrounding verses, before and after, you will see the emphasis that the circumcised heart will also be one of obedience. Let's look at the entire passage with context. Read it all. I've CAPPED for emphasis:
"So it shall be when all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and YOU CALL THEM TO MIND IN ALL NATIONS where YHWH your God has banished you, AND YOU RETURN to YHWH your God AND OBEY HIM WITH ALL YOU HEART and soul, ACCORDING TO ALL I COMMAND YOU TODAY, YOU AND YOUR SONS, then YHWH your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where YHWH your God has scattered you. If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there YHWH your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back.So, we see that a circumcised heart is one that is obedient. One who desires to love God and obey Him.
YHWH your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. Moreover YHWH your God will CIRCUMCISE YOUR HEART AND THE HEART OF YOUR DESCENDANTS, to love YHWH your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live. YHWH your God will inflict all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you. And you shall again OBEY YHWH, and OBSERVE ALL THE COMMANDMENTS which I command you today. Then YHWH your God will prosper you abundantly in all the work of your hand, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your cattle and in the produce of your ground, for YHWH will again rejoice over you for good, just as He rejoiced over your fathers; IF YOU OBEY YHWH your God TO KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS AND HIS STATUTES which are written in this book of the law, IF YOU TURN TO YHWH your God WITH ALL YOUR HEART AND SOUL.
For this commandment which I command you today IS NOT TOO DIFFICULT FOR YOU, nor is it out of reach. It is not in heaven, that you should say, 'Who will go up to heaven for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?' Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, 'Who will cross the sea for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?' But THE WORD IS VERY NEAR YOU, in your mouth and IN YOUR HEART, THAT YOU MAY OBSERVE IT.
See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity; in that I COMMAND YOU TODAY TO LOVE YHWH your God, TO WALK IN HIS WAYS, to KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS, HIS STATUTES AND HIS JUDGMENTS, THAT YOU MAY LIVE and multiply, and that YHWH your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it.
But IF YOUR HEART TURNS AWAY AND YOU WILL NOT OBEY, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I DECLARE TO YOU TODAY THAT YOU WILL SURELY PERISH. You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse.
So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving YHWH your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which YHWH swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them."
We see that loving God IS defined as obeying Him, and that this obedience rises out of the state of your heart. If your heart is circumcised, you will feel the need to do what He asks of you. If you choose not to obey, you can see from the scriptures above, that that requires your heart to turn away.
We also see that this isn't some vague obedience, like waiting on God to tell us our calling in life and then obeying. While that is important, God is very specific here that He is speaking as to obedience to the commands Moses was giving to the Israelites. We've covered before that YOU and I are Israelites, grafted in through the blood shed by Jesus on the cross. That sacrifice granted us to be part of the covenant. That covenant requires circumcision of the heart as a sign, and circumcision of the heart requires obedience to God's commands. He tells us they are not too difficult for us and they are written on our hearts (by the Holy Spirit, which causes us to walk in them. See Ezekiel 36:27:
"I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances."and Jeremiah 31:33:
"But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people."When we get proud and refuse to obey what is very clearly laid out in scripture, we are not allowing our hearts to be circumcised. We are what the scriptures refer to as being "stiff-necked," desiring our will, not His. I encourage you to please allow the Spirit to work on you and test these things to be true. As children of God, we no doubt want to make sure we are doing His will, and not our own. I pray that you seek His face earnestly on these matters. <3
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