A Heart Established...
God wants our hearts established (steadfast, strengthened) in His Grace toward us. Not a heart full of worries, fears, heaviness and tossed about by every challenge that comes our way.
When we think that our breakthroughs are dependent on our own ability to obey God, and not relying on the strength of the Spirit of God to work on our behalf, then our hearts will not be at rest. In fact, it will actually feel more like a heavy burden.
Okay, in love, I'm going "mama bear" here for a moment. Just met with yet another person who has a heavy burden that has been laid on them.
Time and again, well-meaning people give their interpretation of how to walk this life with God, even suggesting their own convictions are to be ours as well. Before you know it, it feels like a tightrope that you are walking, and that it all depends on you not messing up to get to the other side. The standard for righteousness is beyond us, and we cannot manufacture that kind of righteousness by our own works, before and after Christ. Instead, we must rely on Jesus to be that righteousness on our behalf. We in and of ourselves do not have "our own righteousness", we are "the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus".
Simple heart check to tell if something is from God? Does it bring focus and glory to the strength and righteousness of God within us, the ONE who completes what HE has started? ...Or is it heavy to carry, and the focus is on ourselves?
God's Confirming Word:
Matthew 11:28-30-"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Zechariah 4:6- ..‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’
Says the Lord of hosts.
Hebrews 13:9- Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace...
Matthew 23:4-And they tie up heavy burdens and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as their finger.
I John 5:3-For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.
Matthew 7:13-14-“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it."
(The narrow gate is through Jesus Christ and His righteousness alone that leads to life.)
Galatians 3:2-5-This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? So then, does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?
Matthew 5:16-Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
❤️When we depend on God's Grace (His undeserved, unmerited favor) in His Righteousness, our hearts become established. The only thing that qualifies us to receive God's blessings is faith in the finished work of Christ. ~love u
