Can you imagine how our personal situation would change if we literally prayed first? It seems so simple, right? Instead, most of the time we phone a friend, complain to our spouse, dread our day, or are stressed out and anxious just hoping everything changes. There is a better way, a holy way, a Biblical way to live that God is calling us to.
Do you remember when you asked Jesus to come into your heart? Maybe you were a child at Sunday School, or at a VBS when you raised your hand to ask Jesus to come into your heart. Maybe it was during your teen years when you had an encounter with His presence and you knew there was something different, something hopeful, something that made you feel loved like never before, so you decided to ask Him to live in your heart. Or maybe you were an adult when God revealed Himself to you in such a tangible way, you could no longer deny His existence and presence, so you invited Him into your heart.
As I reminisce about that day as a young child, asking Jesus to come into my heart, I am filled with joy and delight. I remember being giddy and excited to tell my parents the decision I had made in Sunday school. It brings back fond memories to think of my salvation day. I hope it does for you too. What joy we have in His salvation!
But there is more. God didn’t send His Son only for us to be saved. He sent His Son for us to experience sanctification through salvation, the full life that He died for us to live. So what exactly is sanctification? Simply put, sanctification means the process of looking more like Jesus every day. Don’t you want to act, respond, and love others like Jesus? Me too.
It can start today through prayer. Pray this: “God, keep my whole heart for my whole life.” But isn’t that the same as the salvation prayer we have prayed before? Yes, it is similar, but let’s dive into this area of our hearts, so we can pray this prayer without holding any piece of ourselves back.
Our hearts are not only the muscle in our body that pumps blood, and it’s not just an emotional center for our feelings and thoughts. Our hearts are our 1) Identity 2) Decisions 3) With that perspective, let’s look at the life of David. The Bible describes him as the man after God’s own heart in 1 Samuel 13:14 and Acts 13:22.
If you have heard the mountaintop experiences of his story, you might be able to see how that’s true. However, David didn’t always give his whole heart to God. There was a time when David prayed in Psalm 27:8 “My heart says of you, “Seek His face!” Your face, Lord, I will seek.” But unfortunately, David wasn’t seeking the Lord’s face when he peered off the rooftop overlooking the city. He noticed a woman bathing and chose to have an affair with her which resulted in a pregnancy. Then he had her husband murdered to try and cover it up. Crazy, right?
A whole heart to God means having an ear that listens. David was not listening to God during that moment of weakness. He unclogged his ears and listened to God. Like David, sometimes our ears are clogged with all the noise we allow in. We can ask ourselves, are we still listening to Him? God, unclog our ears so we can hear you today.
To continue in the story of David, fortunately, God sent a prophet to him as an opportunity to take responsibility for his sinful actions. In this moment, he could have chosen any number of responses. But with humility and a repentant heart, David chose to give God his whole heart for his whole life by having a posture of repentance.
A whole heart to God means a repentant posture towards God. In Psalm 51:10 David wrote, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” With our ears unclogged and listening to what God says, if we mess up, we can immediately know and ask God for forgiveness by praying this Scripture. A repentant life is a life that is in right standing with God.
Later in David’s life, he prayed this prayer in Psalm 118:27-28 “The Lord is God, shining upon us. Take the sacrifice and bind it with cords on the altar. You are my God, and I will praise you! You are my God, and I will exalt you!” David was declaring that his heart belonged to God and God alone. A whole heart to God means to bind it to the altar.
Bind means to captivate, imprison, capture, to hole, to keep, to prepare, and to give full authority to. Are we binding our whole heart to the altar of the Lord? Or are we scattering pieces of our heart elsewhere and only giving God some of our heart? When we get hurt and blame God or are mad at Him for something, is it because He did it to us? Or is it because that piece of our heart wasn’t bound to the altar to begin with? Binding our whole hearts to the altar means safety, wholeness, and knowing God as MY GOD!
This is what happens when we bind our whole hearts to the altar:
Psalm 34:4-8
I prayed to the Lord, and he answered me.
He freed me from all my fears.
5 Those who look to him for help will be radiant with joy;
no shadow of shame will darken their faces.
6 In my desperation I prayed, and the Lord listened;
he saved me from all my troubles.
7 For the angel of the Lord is a guard;
he surrounds and defends all who fear him.
8 Taste and see that the Lord is good.
Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!
So today, let’s begin making it a lifestyle to pray first. Through salvation begins the process of sanctification where we can give our whole heart to God for our whole life. Praying first will become more and more a part of our daily lives as we listen, repent, and make sure our whole hearts stay bound to his altar! Amen?
You can check out this sermon from Pastor Amy Adams on YouTube at youtube.com/mylgc called Pray First Week One or check it out on our app at LifeGate Church Villa Rica.
Devotional from message on 1-14-24 Pastor Amy Adams - Pray First Week One
Written by: Brittany Holbrok