You're Too Late

Proverbs 23:26 says this, “O My son, give Me your heart.  May your eyes take delight in following My ways.”

And my commentary says this, which I love, “He must be the chief object of our love.  Our thoughts must dwell upon Him; and on Him, as our chief good and highest end, our most fervent affections must be placed.  We must not think to divide our hearts between Him and the world, He will have the whole heart, or no part of it.”

Scripture tells us that the Lord is a “jealous” God, one who will not share in our divided loyalty.  (“… for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods.” Ex 20:5)

He wants our whole hearts yielded to Him, surrendered to Him, and prepared for His usefulness.

And this means that we must take care of our hearts above all else.

When we invite Jesus in to take up residency in our hearts, we are inviting Him in to our home…. the seat of our affection.  It cannot be occupied by anything else, otherwise He has no place to inhabit… no place to rest His head.

It is a an empty heart that the devil enters into.  So when he sees a heart with even slightly divided loyalty… one that is partially filled with half-hearted devotion to God, and the other void of any such fervor or passion, he preys upon those weakened parts.

I read it in these relative terms… we’ve seen it play out in young children who break windows of old abandoned houses.  The same is of the enemy.  He throws stones wherever the heart is empty.

Ahh… but he can’t overpower the heart that is full of Christ Jesus.
He may attempt weak and feebly, but he will not find success in destroying the home… the heart… that is consumed by Him.

May we, the Jesus people, say it to the devil and in the face of the evil he endeavors to hurl our way, “You’re too late.”

“You’re too late, enemy.  I have already given my heart to Jesus… I’ve already occupied my life with His goodness and grace.  I am affected by your schemes no longer.”

May we be able to say with great confidence that the Lord is the Possessor of my heart, and I will not be moved by defeat and discouragement any more.  I will no longer allow my heart to be divided by faith and fear, pleasure and pain, wonder and worry, blessedness and bitterness.

Today I will choose to live in full surrender and give my WHOLE heart over to the one who formed me and knows me intimately.  (Ps 139:13-16)

I will no longer be ruled by fear.
I will no longer be a slave to anxiety and depression.
I will no longer be manipulated by danger.
I will no longer allow discouragement to derail me.
I will no longer let anger control my emotions.
I will no longer worry about what others do and say.

“You’re too late” enemy… my entire heart is His and His alone.