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Transcript:
Hello, welcome to Walking in Step with God. I am Steve McDonald. Today we explore the topic “Give Your Heart to God” as we wrap up our series “Give”. I hope you have enjoyed this series as much as I have. We have explored so many ways to give for the benefit of others.
We have learned how giving our time can be a powerful way to impact the lives of others. We learned how giving our resources can have broad-reaching impacts for communities around the world. We discussed how being a vessel allows us to be used by God to intervene in someone’s life in ways we could never have imagined. We have even discussed the power of kindness. Kindness can bring light and hope into the darkest of circumstances.
Today, to conclude this series I would like to dive into ways that we can turn our giving to God. Let’s explore 3 ways that we can give our hearts to God. As we share our hearts with others in our circle, let us also find ways to share our hearts with our Creator, our Protector, and the One who loves us more than we can imagine.
Before we dive in, why don’t we take a quick break? I will be right back.
Welcome back. Let’s continue discussing 3 ways to give your heart to God.
#1 Choose godliness over worldliness
On any given day, all of us are bombarded with decisions to make. Decisions about our health, our families, our work, our play, and decisions on how we show up with and interact with the world. In today’s day and age, the world is not aligned with godliness. Quite simply, the world is aligned with the desires of the flesh. Lust, greed, envy, vanity, and wrath are among the ways our flesh seeks out its desires in today’s fallen world.
These desires may be socially acceptable, but they do not honor God. In fact, so many parts of life that are socially acceptable do nothing but move us farther away from God.
God gives us complete and total free will to make our own choices. The truth is that we can have a fulfilling and joy-filled life even if we make choices that honor God and turn away from the temptations of the world.
By choosing godliness over worldliness, we are posturing ourselves before God to express to Him where our priorities lie -and- giving our heart to Him in the process. Choosing godliness over worldliness may have a chilling effect on relationships and interactions with others who are comfortable with the norms of today’s society, but I believe God rewards those who see that the most important thing is to seek a way of living that honors Him. Be sure to stay tuned for our Going Deeper With the Word segment after this message to learn more about what it means to live a godly life.
#2 Make time for quiet time with God
Every single relationship takes work. Do you have someone in your life that you consider to be your best friend? What did it take to strengthen that relationship? One of the most important factors for any relationship is an investment of time. Investing time in a relationship means putting aside your priorities and prioritizing one-on-one interaction.
If you agree that an investment of time in your best friend’s relationship is important, your relationship with God is no different.
One way we can give our hearts to God is by prioritizing time with Him regularly. I can honestly say that prioritizing my time with God every day is one of the most important things I have done for my life and my faith. I make it a point to make time with God at the very beginning of every day. Before emails, text messages, or scrolling through the news, I am setting aside quiet time to be still and be one with Him.
I truly believe that during this time God allows me to feel His presence and a level of peace and calm unlike any other moment of my day. I believe He allows me to feel these things because He sees the sincerity in my heart to give myself to Him in this time.
If you are not already, I invite you to set aside quiet time to be one with God. In this time, share your heart and your thoughts with Him without any restrictions, or embrace the quiet and stillness in your mind. Either way, give Him your heart as well as your time each day, for the rest of your days.
#3 Seek God’s will for your life
As I have mentioned time and time again, I think the most important thing we can do in our walk with God is to seek out His will for our lives. For all of our lives, we are taught to pursue our own desires, hopes, and dreams. God does want us to seek out our hopes and dreams, but I believe there is another level that we can aim for.
We can aim for a level of faithfulness where we prepare for and pursue our dreams, but we make a conscious decision to yield to God’s will for our lives. God does not require this step of any of us, but I have learned something very interesting. I have learned that the closer I got to God, the more I wanted to honor Him and please Him. The more I loved God, the more I wanted to show my love for Him. When I started to ask God to reveal His will for my life, I believe I witnessed and experienced a fundamental shift in how my life circumstances unfold month to month, year to year. I learned that I can still seek out things that are of interest to me, with the caveat that those things are aligned with God’s perfected plans for me and His will. Giving my heart to God means that I trust that His will is perfect over what I believe to be the best-laid plans for my life. Knowing God’s will is perfect, I am excited to see how God’s plans will impact my life and the lives of others around me.
I invite you to consider giving your heart fully to God, bringing your hopes, dreams, and plans to Him but with a willingness to yield to God’s will as He sees fit for your life.st in Him in every aspect of our lives and being still when making a decision is based on fear. Fear of making the wrong choice. Fear of failing. We need not fear when we walk with God. Of course, God expects us to use wisdom and discernment, so we should do our homework before making a decision. Praying for guidance, and expecting that guidance as we move forward strengthens our faith because it demonstrates to God our reliance upon Him and our trust in Him with every step we take.
Wrap Up
In today’s message, we explored 3 ways to give your heart to God. We explored the idea that while there are many areas of life that are socially acceptable, this does not necessarily mean that they are godly. The godly life and way of living may not be popular in the world, but it allows a life that is closely aligned with the will of God. We discussed the importance of setting aside time on a regular basis to be still and quiet with God. Time is an important investment in any relationship, and a relationship with God is no different. Let us all make time, even daily, even hourly, to connect with our Creator. Lastly, we learned that it is so important to seek out God’s will for our lives. We can come up with amazing plans for amazing goals, but only God knows the best plans for us. Seeking God’s will can be one of the best decisions we can make as we seek out ways to align ourselves with the perfection of God.
Are you interested in discovering more about the guidance offered in this message? Learn more in the companion article Going Deeper with the Word: Give Your Heart to God
