It is amazing how an ordinary boy with a less-than-glamourous job of tending fields (read: shoveling sheep poop and fighting lions off in his spare time) for his father was chosen by God for His extraordinary purposes and specifically commended as being one “after God’s own heart.” Our stories are the same! God has called us by name, and through Jesus, brought us into his family. He has made the ordinary extraordinary and given us a new heart, a heart freed from captivity to sin and death which can now choose instead to follow Jesus with abandon. Scripture says in 2 Chronicles 16:9 that the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. In another translation, it says he strengthens hearts “that are completely his.”

The world tells us to abandon our hearts to other things, and our flesh beckons us back to a life of sin. We may have our hands balled up around something which we have not given to God. It may be something we compartmentalize: God, you can have it all…except this one thing. What is the thing, the relationship, the addiction, the money, the area of life you want control over? Are there any walls in your heart toward God? What would happen if our hearts were “completely His?”

He gives us a strength which encourages us, gives courage to us, and sustains us. We lose our false semblance of control, but gain the protection and loving leading of God in our lives and peace that passes understanding. Let it be said of us, the Church, this generation, you and me, that we are a people with hearts abandoned, hearts that are completely His, hearts that are ever after Him alone.

God, give me a heart abandoned, ever after you alone. All the things of this world pale in comparison to You. If they don’t, awaken me to the reality of Christ, open my eyes to see you and surely everything else will fade into the background. I know You’re the one who gave me a new heart in Christ, so please shape it and guide it into your ways. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.