Life, Adventure or Battle
By William M. Self
The heart controls the flow of life
Your adventures in life are determined by your heart
Heart After God
Every adventure starts somewhere.
The starting place is the heart.
Our hearts control
our beliefs and our behavior.
The heart is the channel…
It is the mover of blood to the rest of the body.
Without it, life does not flow.
There may be blood in the body, but the
blood must be flowing for there to be life.
The heart determines the direction of life.
The heart must be engaged for there to be life.
Our growth in life will never exceed
the beliefs in our heart.
God said about David…
'I have found David
son of Jesse a man after my own heart;
he will do everything I want him to do.' Acts 13:22 NIV
But even David’s heart became
filled with lust and murder.
When his heart was after God, his adventures
led him to great victories and accomplishments.
But when his own evil desires filled his heart,
it led him on a
painful adventure.
God did not judge David by the valleys of failure.
Rather by surveying the whole landscape.
The fact that Jesus acknowledged Himself as the
“Son of David” is
a commentary on David’s legacy.
Your heart and mine beat every day,
every minute, every
second.
As long as we are alive it beats, supplying
life-giving blood to the whole body.
There are times, a healthy person’s
heart can skip a beat.
Times that take us on an adventure
to the valley of failure.
But thank God for His mercy and grace.
When our hearts pump bad blood
through our bodies, there is hope…
A change of heart, Repentance.
Thank God for the blood of Jesus that renews us.
Like David, if we have a heart after God’s heart,
God will fill the valleys with mercy and forgiveness…
Because His heart beats love for you.
Scripture Reading
Acts 13:22 NIV
'I have
found David son of Jesse
a man after my own heart; he will
do everything I want him to do.'
Psalm
51:1-12 NIV
Have mercy
on me, O God,
according to
your unfailing love;
according to
your great compassion
blot out my
transgressions.
2 Wash away
all my iniquity
and cleanse
me from my sin.
3 For I know
my transgressions,
and my sin
is always before me.
4 Against
you, you only, have I sinned
and done
what is evil in your sight,
so that you
are proved right when you speak
and
justified when you judge.
5 Surely I
was sinful at birth,
sinful from
the time my mother conceived me.
6 Surely you
desire truth in the inner parts;
you teach me
wisdom in the inmost place.
7 Cleanse me
with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and
I will be whiter than snow.
8 Let me
hear joy and gladness;
let the
bones you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your
face from my sins
and blot out
all my iniquity.
10 Create in
me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a
steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not
cast me from your presence
or take your
Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore
to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me
a willing spirit, to sustain me.
