“ALL YOUR! HEART!”

Jeremiah 29:13                                                (ESV)

“You will seek ME and find ME, when you seek ME with “ALL YOUR HEART”.”

A friend shared this verse on his wall yesterday afternoon and it continued to stir my heart into the evening.  After trying to find where GOD was speaking to me in other Scriptures, I finally gave in and listened to what HE was saying to me through this Old Testament passage.  

Jeremiah 29:13 has always been a favorite of mine.  While I understand that I am not an Israeli exile (whom Jeremiah was writing to), I feel that I have lived my life as an outsider, someone who didn’t quite fit into the mold of everyone else.  Attempting to live a life that was pleasing to GOD always seemed to be beyond my ability.  It appeared as though the harder I tried to live for HIM, the harder “the enemy” would strive to defeat me.   

When I finally realized that JESUS wanted nothing less than “ALL YOUR HEART”, it finally began to be clear to me.  JESUS lived the PERFECT life that I was trying to live for HIM, because HE knew that it was IMPOSSIBLE for me!  HE requires “ALL YOUR HEART” to be invested in HIS work before HE will bless you with blessings that ONLY HE can provide.  

JESUS has already lived the Perfect Life, so I need to live a life that honors HIM.  We have nothing to offer HIM but “ALL YOUR HEART”!  HE will give us what HE needs us to have to perform what HE has planned for our lives.  When I was younger (and slimmer!), I could hit a softball a long way.  But all of that is frivolous to me now.  Showing a lost world that JESUS has “ALL MY HEART” is the only thing that matters to me now!  Does HE have “ALL YOUR HEART”???