“Blessed are they that keep His Testimonies and that seek Him with the whole heart.”
Psalm 119:2
Nothing hidden, nothing held back.
That’s what it means to “seek Him with the whole heart.” And, that should be the desire and quest of every one of us, shouldn’t it, Pilgrim?
Most assuredly it should.
The Hebrew word “kol” is used here for “whole” and also means “all, any and every part, altogether, perfect, complete, singular, etc.” Thus, it’s the picture of a united heart, not a divided heart—and one that’s wholly yielded to the One by Whose Name we are called.
Now, we know by nature we are hotwired to wander from God as straying sheep and prodigal sons. From birth our “minds are at enmity (hostile) with God” (Rom. 8:7) and our wills are intent on fulfilling “the lusts of the flesh, eyes and pride of life” (I Jn. 2:16).
But, the time comes when we “come to ourselves” (Lk. 15:17) and realize how far we’ve wandered from Home and how grievously we’ve sinned against the Father.
So we “arise and go to the Father,” with contrition of heart and confession of mouth (vv.18-20a) and, to our delight, we find the Father “having compassion on us, running to meet us, hugging and kissing us as He says ‘Welcome Home! This, My child was dead and is alive again; was lost and now is found’!” (vv.20b, 24). Hallelujah!!
And, it should be this “Righteous Reception and Rejoicing” that should move us to want to “keep (Heb. ‘natsar’—‘guard, protect, maintain, preserve, observe, etc.’) His Testimonies and seek Him with our whole heart.”
Why is that?
Simply because He has given us His Best and we should want to give Him our best in return.
Who of us would buy a house if the seller said “This house can be yours for the low, low price of $___________ and there’s only one stipulation: There are three rooms in the house that are padlocked and you can’t go into them”?
We know the answer, don’t we?
None of us!!
Truly, none of us would buy a house where there was an “Off limits” or “No Entry” sign on any of the doors.
Why then do we think God would want to be Lord of our lives if He can’t be “Lord of all”? He won’t—for, as someone said, “He’ll be Lord of all or He won’t be Lord at all.”
May the Holy Spirit search our hearts today and reveal any areas that are preventing us from loving and seeking Him with our “whole heart.” It may be in priorities, passions or pursuits. But, let us not rest until we are “seeking Him first” (Mt. 6:33) and made sure we’ve given Him the key to every room in our hearts. Only then will we truly be “blessed.”
June 4, 2011
