Psalm 51:10-11(KJV)
“10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. 11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.”
Many years ago, for a while I didn’t know if I was coming or going. I had ended a relationship with a man that I loved very much. I thought we’d get married, and when it was clear that wasn’t going to happen, my feelings and emotions were all over the place. I had a short fuse with everyone over anything and would cry at the drop of a dime. I needed a wake-up call from God something serious, and it came by way of a call from my mother. After hearing a little bit of my sob story, she said to me, “I know you didn’t make a man your God! There’s only room for One, and He sits high and looks low, so snap out of it!”
God commands in Exodus 34:14 (ESV), “For you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is jealous, is a jealous God.” To be honest, throughout my relationship, it never dawned on me that I was sinning against God’s law because I didn’t fully understand what it meant. Idolatry is defined as extreme or obsessive love or reverence for something or someone. We idolize the thing or person for which we assign worship and focus, and we have given our heart over to it. This is very dangerous for us when we give this much focus and admiration to anyone other than our Creator.
The pain of my heartbreak taught me that I had allowed myself to become emotionally handicapped in a relationship. When this happens, the only place to go is disappointment because human beings were not created to be worshiped, and we are incapable of handling it. Our God passionately loves us, His children. Genesis 1:26 tells us that He made us in His image, and therefore, we have the capacity to love very deeply and very genuinely, but that is only accomplished by loving God through Jesus Christ and allowing His love to swell in our hearts.
We were created to serve, love, and worship God and this is the greatest thing that any of us could ever do. God commands us in Romans 12:1(NLT) to “give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.” Any other way is not worship. God must be our everything, and when we behave as though this truth isn’t anchored in our hearts, we head in a direction that ends badly.
Jesus Christ said in Matthew 12:35(NLT), “A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart.” We can’t have a good heart if it has not learned to put our love for God over all things. Human beings are not perfect. We make mistakes daily, and God knows this, but the mistake we can’t afford to make is to put someone in the place that is only reserved for our King, the One True Living God. Jesus Christ makes it clear in Luke 16:13(NLT) that “No one can serve two masters.” A master is a person that has the ability, authority, and power to control others. We can’t have two at the same time. So, we will either choose our all-powerful, sovereign God through Jesus Christ, or we will choose to make an idol of something else and live overwhelmingly far beneath our privilege. This is always the choice before us.
God also commands us in Romans 12:2(NLT) not to “copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” As women of God, the testimony of our lives should prove God’s good, pleasing, and perfect Will for us. It should prove that we honor and reverence God and that our love for Him is loyal and pure. He’s the only one we have to prove this to, because He alone is worthy. Adoration and awe for God should be running over in our hearts so that they are filled with His goodness. When our faith is firmly anchored in God this way, we won’t ever place our husbands, boyfriends, or anyone else before our commitment to please our wonderful Heavenly Father. We will make our relationship with Him our greatest priority, and we will reflect His goodness and love in all that we do. ■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“A Good Heart Reflects God’s Goodness”, written by Kim Times, edited by Fran Mack and K. Stephens for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2023. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!