Hope, Healing & Freedom Podcast: Episode 166
TRANSCRIPT
I’m sure you have heard the phrase in church about having Wholehearted Devotion to Jesus. I heard it again this week at church and I found myself agreeing with it yet not being sure what it means and how to do that. Our hearts are so divided between our family and friends, our hobbies and our desires. Then you throw in verses like Psalms 86:11 that says to “Unite my heart to fear Your name.” How can we say with all integrity that we are whole heartedly devoted to Jesus with so many things tugging on our affections. I believe that RTF can help you answer that question. That is the topic of this week’s podcast.
I’m Lee Whitman with Restoring the Foundations and I welcome you into this Hope Healing and Freedom Podcast. You may have heard me say in previous podcasts that I am not very religious. What I mean by that is that I am very disturbed at how we have taken an amazing and intimate relationship with Father God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and we have made it into something that is very religious. In this podcast, I am going to attempt to explain the difference between wholehearted devotion to Jesus and what is living by a religious formula. I am personally on an interesting journey in my relationship with God. I have been a Christian somewhere around 50 years, and during those years I have had many years when I was red hot on fire for God. I have also had some years when I have just been hanging on by the skin of my teeth. Do teeth have skin, by the way? In last week’s podcast I told you about recently recognizing that I have been living my relationship with Christ more by a routine, then by really experiencing intimacy with Jesus.
The verse for today’s podcast is Psalms 86:11 that I have already quoted. It says, “Unite my heart to fear your name.” This verse out of The Passion Translation says it this way: “Teach me more about You, how You work and how You move, so that I can walk onward in Your Truth until everything within me brings honor to Your name.” That is my goal at this point in my life, yet even 50 years into my walk with Jesus, I am not sure that I am there. Let me give you a silly example. I have mentioned that I love to ride my motorcycle. That is not the problem, by the way. I often ride my bike and have wonderful conversations with Jesus along the way. I get some of my inspiration for these podcasts while riding. What challenges me is the part of this verse that says, “until everything within me brings honor to Your name.” When I ride my bike, I am given to go faster than the state of Tennessee wants me to, intentionally riding over the speed limit because it is enjoyable. I am challenged by this verse because my breaking the speed limit is not bringing honor to Jesus’ name. I know many Christians do the same thing when driving which does not make it OK. But this verse says that my breaking the speed limit (at times) is keeping me from walking onward in His Truth. It causes me to recognize that I am not Whole Heartedly Devoted to Jesus.
The verse from the New King James says to “Unite my heart to fear Your name.” I love how honest David, the writer of Psalms, is with us. He says his heart needs to be united. Why would his heart need to be united? Because in this world we are going to have our hearts broken. In order to have wholehearted devotion, we must have our broken and shattered hearts healed. I think about our friend Chauncie. Chauncie grew up going to church by himself every week because his mother was too tired from working so hard during the week to take him. She was a single mom raising three children after their father left them to join a rock band and never came back. Chauncie accepted Jesus as his savior at an early age. He prayed often for his father to return so they could have a happy family. Chauncie was befriended by a deacon from the church who filled in as a sort of father figure. He taught Chauncie how to play sports, took him fishing, and taught Chauncie how to fix things around his mother’s house. Unfortunately, this deacon took advantage of Chauncie sexually over many years. Chauncie’s heart was broken, and because this man was a deacon and represented the church, Chauncie was unable to trust God as well. He learned that God did nice things for you in order to hurt you. When Chauncey came for RTF ministry as a 75 year old man, his heart was healed from the wound caused by the deacon and he was able to give his whole heart to God for the first time. Once his heart was united, he was able to completely give himself to Jesus.
Billy’s mom and dad were killed in a car wreck when he was 13 years old. He and his two siblings had to go live with his mom’s sister and her family. The aunt fed them and provided clothes and a roof over their heads, but she resented having to take care of them. She treated her sister’s kids much differently than she treated her own children. Billy was a physical orphan having no parents. But he was also a spiritual orphan. He learned that he had to take care of himself, and his two younger siblings because his aunt was not going to. Unfortunately for Billy, he also became an orphan from God. Oh, he went to church every week, probably because his aunt required it, and at one time he did accept Jesus as his savior. But he felt like he had to earn everything he could get from God. At age 35 he was so tired and weary of working so hard and not feeling like he could ever do enough for God, he came to RTF for ministry. God met Billy in a powerful way. First by healing his orphan heart and replacing it with a heart of sonship. Billy knows beyond a doubt that he is a beloved son of God. Next God replaced the lie that Billy could not count on God and had to earn everything in life for himself. Jesus met Billy in a personal encounter with Jesus. Jesus took Billy back through his life and showed him all of the places where Jesus was with him, providing and protecting him without Billy even knowing it. Jesus started by showing Billy that he and his siblings were supposed to go with his parents on the night that his parents died in that car crash, but his father decided at the last minute that he wanted to go alone with his wife. Billy’s life was spared due to that last-minute decision.
Many of us hear phrases like wholehearted devotion and feel condemned. We know that we have parts of our heart that are not devoted to Jesus. In fact, we hear that phrase through the filter of guilt and condemnation. Do you love Jesus more than you love your family? If you didn’t have that motorcycle, you could give more time to the church. Are you sure you are giving enough money to missions? That is the voice of guilt and condemnation. That is not the voice of God. Romans 8:28 is very clear, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” So how do we reconcile the questions I just asked? By going to my Mom’s favorite bible verse Matthew 6:30-34, “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” These verses say that our Heavenly Father knows what we need and to put His kingdom first and trust Him with the rest. Does God love your family more than you do and want you to love and enjoy them? Absolutely. Does God want me to get rid of my motorcycle so I can give more time to the church? I don’t believe so. In fact, God gives us the things we have so that we can enjoy them. ! Timothy 6:17 says “Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy.” He gives us all things to enjoy. But this verse has to be combined with the previous verse, to seek first the Kingdom. We can take verses out of context, and they will cause us trouble. But when we seek first the Kingdom, God love for us to enjoy all the gifts He has given us.
How can RTF help you to be able to give your whole heart to Jesus? First by bringing your broken heart to Jesus and allow Him to bring His special and intimate healing. Just like the healing Jesus brought to Chauncy and to Billy were specifically designed just for them, He will do the same thing for you. He knows you intimately and He knows how to bring His healing into your heart. He does not have a one size that fits all healing. You are a unique individual, so Jesus will minister His healing to you in a unique way. When you read about the physical healings in the bible you will notice that no two healings are the same. Some Jesus spit on the ground and put the mud on the blind man’s eyes. For others like Bartimaeus, Jesus simply told him to go, your faith has made you well. The key is to set aside time to meet with Jesus so that he can heal your heart. If you need help in this process, reach out to an RTF minister in your area. They are skilled at helping you receive the healing you need.
The second area that RTF ministry will help you to be able to come to Jesus with a whole heart is by changing the lies you believe into God’s truth. A couple of weeks ago we talked about how little lies cause erosion of your faith that can lead to a sinkhole. Some of these little lies may sound like these:
“My relationship with God is not that bad.”
Jesus heals others but not me.
God expects me to reject my children to serve Him.
No matter what I do to serve God, it will never be enough.
No matter how hard I try, I can never meet the standard.
Don’t let guilt and condemnation cause you to hold back. God is not looking for perfection, He is looking for our heart. I am going to end this podcast with my Mom’s favorite verse again. Matthew 6:33: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
PRAYER
Father God thank You for Your grace and mercy. Even though we fall short of wholehearted devotion, You don’t condemn us, but rather you encourage us to press on toward the prize of the high call in Jesus. Father sometimes we make big strides toward becoming more like Jesus, and at other times we are just inching forward. In both cases you are excited that we are your children who are becoming like Jesus here on this earth.
Thank you for joining us on this Hope Healing and Freedom Podcast. If your recognize that you might need some help form an RTF minister, please don’t hesitate, go to our website restoringthefoundations.org and reach out to one of our highly trained ministers near you. We look forward to being with you next week’s Hope Healing and Freedom Podcast.