Hearts Overflowing

"Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,

...

and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

...

Create in me a clean heart, O God,

and renew a right spirit within me.

...

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;

a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise"

(Psalm 51:6,10,12,17).

God looks at the heart, this is a premise throughout the Bible. In the Old Testament prophesies we are told of a new heart and spirit that he will give us through Christ, "I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanliness, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and decrees" (Ezekiel 36:25-27).

We are to love God with all our heart and such a thing is not far off. “For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it" (Deuteronomy 30:11-16). By his new covenant in Christ Jesus, God writes his laws on our hearts "And who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee" (2 Corinthians 1:22).

When we believe we are adopted as his children, "And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” (Galatians 4:6). Jesus said, "Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water" (John 7:38). Oh how we need rivers of living water to flow out of our hearts so that others might drink. "The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life" (John 6:63), oh to eat and share from his word, the bread of life. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Matthew 5:8), oh to be pure in heart, as little children.

" For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen" (Ephesian 3:16-21).

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