"Let your heart therefore be wholly devoted to the LORD our God, to walk in His statutes and to keep His commandments, as at this day." 1 Kings 8:61 . . . In a way, it's easy to pledge your allegiance to someone, to obey their orders and respect them. But to pledge your heart to someone is an entirely different matter. It requires your complete trust, love, and devotion, your willingness to invest wholeheartedly and faithfully in that person, no matter the cost. It requires commitment and sacrifice, and the acknowledgment that that someone holds a certain power over you that no one else can (at least, not quite in the same way). To pledge your heart to someone is to pursue him/her just as much as you are being pursued. . . . This all sounds very romantic, but I'm not just talking about earthly relationships here; I'm speaking of the ultimate relationship we have with God, our Lord, our Father, and, most importantly, our First Love. I've been wondering if it's far easier at times to just go through the motions of being Christian...to obey verbatim what the Bible tells me without serious consideration of where my heart is in that. However, I've grown to realize that if my heart is not wholly His, then my faith and obedience are meaningless. For, "if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing" (1 Cor 13:2-3). To God, outward devotion to Him is incomplete and worthless if not married with the inward devotion of our hearts. . . You could be the most committed member of your church, or the most active Christian in your fellowship...but all of that means nothing to God if you do not also devote yourself to loving Him deeply and intimately, through good times and bad, in rich and dry seasons, in sickness and in health (yes, it's a lot like marriage, isn't it?). . . In what ways do you most struggle to give your whole heart to God? And if HE doesn't have your wholehearted devotion...who does? That might be the person you're ultimately worshipping. #week3 #day16 #japan #devotion #wholehearted #Godisfaithful #arewe (at Fushimi Inari-taisha)
