{"id":20658,"date":"2014-07-13T00:20:58","date_gmt":"2014-07-13T04:20:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=20658"},"modified":"2014-07-09T18:56:52","modified_gmt":"2014-07-09T22:56:52","slug":"plea-honest-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2014\/07\/13\/plea-honest-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"The Plea of an Honest Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SeekingHimLogo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are the undefiled
\n(the upright, truly sincere, and blameless) in the way [of the revealed will of God],
\nwho walk (order their conduct and conversation) in the law of the Lord
\n(the whole of God\u2019s revealed will).
\nBlessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are they who keep His testimonies,
\nand who seek, inquire for and of Him and crave Him with the whole heart.
\nYes, they do no unrighteousness [no willful wandering from His precepts];
\nthey walk in His ways.
\nYou have commanded us to keep Your precepts, that we should observe them diligently.
\nOh, that my ways were directed and established to observe Your statutes
\n[hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying them]!
\nPsalms 119:1-5 (AMP)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

These five verses speak of God\u2019s Holy Word. Every verse mentions \u201cHis way<\/em>,\u201d \u201cthe revealed Wo<\/em>rd of God,\u201d \u201cthe law<\/em> of the Lord,\u201d \u201cHis testimonies<\/em>,\u201d \u201cHis precepts<\/em>,\u201d \u201cYour statutes<\/em>\u201d and they tell us a lot about ourselves. Look at the first and last verses…notice the contrast? \u00a0Verse one speaks of being blameless and undefiled. The last verse is a plea from a desperate heart. We try to keep \u201cHis statutes\u201d but, being human, sometimes we fail.<\/p>\n

Take a closer look at verses 1 and 3. Verse 1 states that \u201cthe undefiled (the upright, truly sincere, and blameless)\u201d are blessed. These people \u201cdo no unrighteousness [no willful wandering from His precepts]\u201d according to verse 3. These verses are hard to put into practice. They set the bar high. They convict us.<\/p>\n

However, verses 2 and 4 offer a glimmer of hope. If we \u201cseek, inquire for and of Him and crave Him with the whole heart\u201d, if we \u201ckeep Your precepts, that we should observe them diligently,\u201d if we strive toward doing and not just hearing, then we honor Him. And, with His help, we succeed.<\/p>\n

Ahhhhh\u2026but verse 5. Verse 5 shows us right where we need to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, that my ways were directed and established to observe Your statutes [hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying them]!\u201d<\/p>\n

This is a heartfelt prayer from the depths of our soul. It is a yearning for all we desire to be\u2014for all God created us to be.<\/p>\n

Do you feel shame when you read verses 1 and 3? \u00a0I do. It pricks my conscience when I reflect on my failures and His ultimate act of grace. I have a past strewn with sin, littered with mistakes, and filled with bad choices. Since we are not blameless and undefiled, does that mean we are not blessed? \u00a0No<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

1 John 4:17 tells us \u201cas He is, so also are we in this world.\u201d Jesus is blameless, undefiled, and perfect<\/span> and that is how God sees us. God looks past our mistakes and sees our heart. He sees the desires of an honest heart; and our desire for a right relationship with Him.<\/p>\n

\u00a0*<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0~ \u00a0 \u2665 \u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u271e\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 *<\/span><\/p>\n

Father God, we lift our hearts up to You, knowing we are not blameless or undefiled. We are so thankful that through Your mercy and grace You see past our imperfection and into our hearts. Thank You for the gift of Jesus that makes us perfect in Your sight. May we always desire to hear, receive, love, and obey Your revealed will for us. In the precious name of Jesus we pray, Amen \u2013 so be it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are the undefiled (the upright, truly sincere, and blameless) in the way [of the revealed will of God], who walk (order their conduct and conversation) in the law of the Lord (the whole of God\u2019s revealed will). Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are they who keep His testimonies, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":13840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3020],"tags":[6753,6756,5889,3367,6754,3174,6755],"class_list":["post-20658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-devotions","tag-1-john-417","tag-blessed-when-we-keep-his-commandments","tag-cynda-cottrill","tag-daily-devotions-2","tag-psalms-1191-5","tag-seeking-him-devotional","tag-the-plea-of-an-honest-heart","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-5nc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20658"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20661,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20658\/revisions\/20661"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}