Hope for Healing, Faith for Living Podcast

Preparing Our Hearts for Growth

Our faith can grow but just like a farmer prepares the ground before planting, we must prepare our hearts to receive the Word of God.

“We are bound to always give thanks to God for you, brothers, even as it is appropriate, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of each and every one of you toward one another abounds,” - 2 Thessalonians 1:3

“So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Romans 10:17

We should look at those things which are spiritual in light of the parables of things in the natural that Jesus talked about to help us understand.

 For we are God’s fellow workers [His servants working together]; you are God’s cultivated field [His garden, His vineyard], God’s building. - 1 Corinthians 3:9 Amplified Bible

In Mark 4, Jesus tells the parable about the seed and the sower. In verse 14 he plainly says the seed is the Word. The Ground is us, specifically our hearts.  The seed is good, what determines growth is the condition of and willingness of the heart.

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭13‬:‭2‬-‭23‬ ‭ESV‬‬

The farmer sowed the seed but it often didn’t bring forth a harvest. If we want the seed to benefit, then we must  prepare our hearts and keep our hearts ready to receive his Word.

“My son, attend to my words. Turn your ear to my sayings. Let them not depart from your eyes. Keep them in the center of your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and health to their whole body. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it is the wellspring of life.”

‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭4‬:‭20‬-‭23‬ ‭ 

The condition of our heart matters!

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Matthew 5:8 ESV

To be pure in heart means to be of single focus and motivation. All you want, all you do and how you do it is wrapped up in your desire for God.

The Scripture says in Matthew 22:36-38

36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment.

Does that mean you can’t pursue or love other things in life? No. But what it does mean is that in all you do, you do it as unto the Lord. 

Listen to what the Scripture says about Hezekiah

20 Thus Hezekiah did throughout all Judah, and he did what was good and right and faithful before the Lord his God. 21 And every work that he undertook in the service of the house of God and in accordance with the law and the commandments, seeking his God, he did with all his heart, and prospered. - 2 Chronicles 31:20-21

 About David who God chose to replace Saul  

“When he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, to whom he also testified, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who will do all my will.”  Acts 13:22

What about loving others?

Love with the love God has placed in your hearts.

The condition of the heart is revealed by your motives.

“You lust, and don’t have. You murder and covet, and can’t obtain. You fight and make war. You don’t have, because you don’t ask. 3 You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.”  James 4:2-3 World English Bible

If a person will read his Word, believe it and yield to it, the outcome will be a person of love, a pure heart and has a good conscience.

“The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” 1 Timothy 1:5 NIV

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10 ESV

If we will trust God, yield to his Word, he will creat a right heart within us, a heart ready to receive his Word.

Blessings in Christ,
Tim Dumas
www.hopeforhealingfaithforliving.com