{"id":10332,"date":"2012-07-30T20:56:12","date_gmt":"2012-07-31T01:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/?p=10332"},"modified":"2012-09-30T15:53:18","modified_gmt":"2012-09-30T20:53:18","slug":"a-messy-life-and-a-heart-for-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/30\/a-messy-life-and-a-heart-for-god\/","title":{"rendered":"A Messy Life And A Heart For God"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.&#8221; 2 Ch.16.9<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/messy-baby.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-10333\" title=\"messy baby\" src=\"http:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/messy-baby.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"320\" height=\"282\" srcset=\"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/messy-baby.jpg 320w, https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/messy-baby-300x264.jpg 300w, https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/messy-baby-226x200.jpg 226w, https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/messy-baby-90x80.jpg 90w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>What does this look like in real life? \u00a0Does it mean we never sin, never get angry, never say the wrong thing or stumble in our walk? \u00a0What does it mean when the Lord talks of looking for hearts fully committed to him?<\/p>\n<p>I read this verse and am convinced he can&#8217;t be talking about me. \u00a0The desire is there to be fully committed, but my life tells a different story. \u00a0My life is messy, smelly at times with sin, I get frustrated, say the wrong things&#8230;.frankly this verse can&#8217;t be talking about someone like me&#8230;.but then I realize that he&#8217;s looking at the heart.<\/p>\n<p>If God just looked at my life he would pass by without a second glance. \u00a0I&#8217;m a mess. \u00a0There is nothing of the material saints are made of in my life, nothing that would tell you \u00a0I&#8217;m a godly man, very little of a holy life for others to see and evaluate.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, if I were under close scrutiny to evaluate my life and determine if I were a Christian I think I would fail the test. \u00a0Fruit rejected. \u00a0Life a waste. \u00a0Failure.<\/p>\n<p>But then I reread these words&#8230;God is looking for hearts fully committed. \u00a0I so want to be that person, that fully committed one. \u00a0Can my heart be fully committed and my life an utter mess? \u00a0If God is looking for fruit, I fail. \u00a0If he&#8217;s looking for a heart that wants to please him no one wants that more than I.<\/p>\n<p>How do I reconcile this paradox? \u00a0How do I bring together a heart that wants God with all that is in me and a life that wanders, choices that are messy, a life that doesn&#8217;t look much different than the world around me at times?<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t know. \u00a0I only know this&#8230;when his eyes pass my way he will see a messy life, but a heart that truly wants to be fully committed to him. \u00a0In the mess of all of this all I can do is trust him to help me follow my heart&#8217;s passion for him.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/messyKid.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-10334\" title=\"messyKid\" src=\"http:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/messyKid.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"228\" srcset=\"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/messyKid.jpg 400w, https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/messyKid-300x171.jpg 300w, https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/messyKid-280x159.jpg 280w, https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/messyKid-90x51.jpg 90w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div>Visit Mike at <a href=\"http:\/\/mikemesserli.blogspot.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Finishing Well<\/a>.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.&#8221; 2 Ch.16.9 What does this look like in real life? \u00a0Does it mean we never sin, never get angry, never say the wrong thing or stumble in our walk? \u00a0What does it mean when the &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/30\/a-messy-life-and-a-heart-for-god\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read more<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;A Messy Life And A Heart For God&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10333,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,25],"tags":[135,5622,173,5620,3942,32,5621,590,203,5624,2416,5625,5626,5618,674,78,2921,5623,5619],"class_list":["post-10332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archived","category-mike","tag-desire","tag-different-story","tag-earth","tag-eyes-of-the-lord","tag-failure","tag-god","tag-godly-man","tag-heart","tag-hearts","tag-holy-see","tag-life-choices","tag-lord-range","tag-lord-talks","tag-messy-life","tag-paradox","tag-passion","tag-saints","tag-scrutiny","tag-second-glance"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}