Fix their hearts

O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our fathers, keep this forever in the intent of the thoughts of the heart of Your people, and fix their heart toward You. And give my son Solomon a loyal heart to keep Your commandments and Your testimonies and Your statutes, to do all these things, and to build the temple for which I have made provision.” - 1 Chronicles 29:18-19

David knew the importance of having a right heart. He should know as he was called a ‘man after God’s own heart.’ As we looked at yesterday God talks about the heart a lot. He does that because all that we are comes from our hearts.

We are told that we have a responsibility to ‘guard our hearts’ from all the temptations in the world. We do have a role to play in this because. We need to make wise choices when it comes to where we go and what we listen to and what we read and what we look at and what we dwell on all of than. Those are things that God gives us the freedom to decide.

But we cannot do it alone because the hearts we are supposed to guard are ‘desperately wicked.’

So we must, like David, acknowledge that only God can keep the thoughts of our hearts on Him. Only He can really fix our hearts on Him. Only He can give us loyal hearts.

So as we strive to make right choices we rely on God for strength to do it. We cannot do it own our own. But we take comfort in the fact that we can have pure and loyal and dedicated hearts as we depend on the Lord. Just when temptations seem like they are too much to handle we seek God’s help.

We guard our hearts. We depend on God to fix our hearts on Him.

And the desired result is a heart after God’s own heart.