A Heart Like His in 2017

Search me, O God, and know my heart;

test me and know my anxious thoughts.

Psalm 139:23 NIV

I want to be a woman after God’s heart yet I often find myself in a struggle between my heart and His. Do you? I have been asking myself a lot of tough questions about knowing God, loving God and following the road signs and plan that He laid out for my life even before He formed me in my mother’s womb.

The Bible says that “as he (man) thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7 KJV) and that “out of the heart the mouth speaks.” (Matthew 12:34 NIV) It also says that God knows “the secrets of the heart.” (Psalm 44:21 NIV)

Do you sometimes struggle to keep a pure heart? If you are like me, it is easy to be good at home. However, when I leave the driveway and pull onto the highway, it is often a different story as people push and shove their vehicles through traffic in a me first adventure.

Throughout the day our eyes and ears see and hear things that can make our hearts heavy. I find that if I am not careful, by the end of the day I am weighed down with a heart that is weary and joyless—my mouth speaking with the agitations and frustrations I have encountered. Surely I am not the only one.

Therefore, we must purposefully determine to think good thoughts, speak kind words, and willingly expose our heart’s secrets to God in prayer. We must choose good over evil, mercy over anger, and contentment over dissatisfaction. Some days the choice is easier than others, but it is always a choice.

Our Heavenly Father is loving, kind, generous, and faithful. If you and I want to be like Him, if we want to live with that determined purpose of fulfilling His plan for our life, if we want to leave a legacy—a road sign—that points people to Jesus, we must resolve to have a heart that reflects the heart of our Father. We must determine to have a Heart like His.

© Joyce Powell