The Prepared Heart

As you know, several weeks ago I spoke to a group of Women's Leaders at a retreat down in middle Georgia. It was a pure joy. But the weeks before that engagement, I kept hearing God whisper in my spirit, "prepare your heart." At first, of course, I assumed the message was for me and me alone concerning this talk for which I was preparing. But it soon became clear that I was supposed to share it. While not sure how or why; that statement kept rolling around in my head and I knew there was a reason.

Then as only God would ordain, I was reading my chronological Bible in the New Living Translation and happened upon Job 11:13:

"If only you would prepare your heart and lift up your hands to him in prayer!"

The cool thing is that based on my research this is the only place in the entire Bible in any translation that those words "prepare your heart" appear in that exact order. I mean . . . really? So . . . what in the world was I supposed to do with that now? Obviously, God put this all together for a big ole reason and I sure didn't want to miss it. So when I spoke to the ladies on hospitality, while this wasn't the focus of my talk, I felt I had to mention that as women in ministry, you cannot minister to others before you prepare your heart for Him. And let's face it, we really all are in ministry in some form or another. Our ministry may be our children and husband; it may be with our friends or in our workplace. Wherever it is, if you are a believer in Jesus, you are in ministry. It is vital that you prepare your heart for Him.
So I knew when Bible study started up again last night that I had to share this with the girls. The study we are beginning has a powerful word and I just felt that they needed "fair warning" to prepare their hearts for a mighty work of God.

So I began researching what the Scripture says about the heart.

Okay, a few numbers. The word "heart" in the NIV appears over 775 times. It appears 127 times in Psalms alone and 75 times in Proverbs. So while I'm no theologian, even I can figure out that there must be something that God wants to tell us about our hearts. Listen to just a few:

"May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer." Psalm 19:14

"He who has a pure heart . . . will receive a blessing from the Lord." Psalm 24:4-5

"Test me Oh Lord and try me, examine my heart and my mind." Psalm 26:2

"Trust in Him at all times, O people, pour out your heart to him for God is our refuge." Psalm 62:8

And Proverbs has a ton of things to say about the heart:
"A heart of peace gives life to the body." Proverbs 14:30
"The wise in heart are called discerning and gracious words promote instruction." Prov. 16:21
"Keep my commands in your heart. " Prov. 3:1

"Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart." Prov. 3:3

And finally:

"But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations." Psalm 33:11

Have you ever thought about God's heart? That our desire should be to align our heart with God's heart?

So I placed this challenge to the Bible study girls last night and I'll share it with you here.

Let's ask God to:
1. Prepare our hearts for His Word. The mighty and powerful Word that He has given us in order to transform us. In Psalm 119 it says "to hide His Word in our heart . . ."

2. Prepare our hearts for His Work. I do know enough about God to know that He won't tender our hearts and then not give us something to do with it.
"Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it." Proverbs 4:23

3. Prepare our hearts for His Wonder. He so wants to wow us! He wants to show us such extravagant love, understanding, peace, comfort, grace and mercy - we just can't imagine it really.

So, let's lay open our hearts to God and just let Him wash over us. The second part of that verse in Job says "lift up your hands to Him in prayer!" So pray that God will prepare your heart for His Word, His work and His wonder!!!


"Teach me your way, O Lord and I will walk in your truth;
Give me an undivided heart, that I may honor your name." Psalm 86:11