“From there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all you soul” (Deut. 4:29). In his farewell addresses of Deuteronomy, Moses reminds the people of God’s law and covenant with the fledgling nation. His sermons point to the vastness of God’s grace in adopting the nation. Moses also focuses on what God wanted in return. It was not mere obedience to a set of commands. Rather, God wanted their hearts. If their hearts were truly set on God, then their lives would follow in obedience.
God still wants people’s hearts. He wants dedication and commitment. He desires love from every aspect of human life—heart, soul, and mind, body (Matt 22:37-38). An important hallmark of Christianity is seeking God with the whole heart. This requires a heart infused with the word of God. God inspired the word to create faith in the hearts of hearers (Rom 10:17). God revealed himself in the word (Rom 1:17; 1 Cor 2:11-13). Christians discern their standing before God only by turning to his word (Heb 4:12).
How do Christians develop a word-infused heart? First, the word is stored in the heart, “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (Psa. 119:11). Through diligent study, prayer, listening, and meditation the word is stored like chord-wood in the heart. The more time spent with the word, the more it is stacked and stored in the heart.
Second, the Christian must live according to the word, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14:23). As Christians allow God’s word to control their actions, Jesus promises the Father and he will dwell in them. Thus, the word-infused heart is the God-infused heart too.
Third, the word-infused heart is written on by God, “This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts” (Jer. 31:34). As God dwells in the hearts of his people, he will write his word on their heart. The longer one lives with God, the more pronounced his writing will be.
Finally, a heart saturated by the word will effervesce with goodness, “How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil” (Matt 12:34-35). The word-infused heart reveals itself through good words, deeds, and thoughts. Seeking God with a whole heart requires a heart wholly permeated by the word of God. The word is stored in the heart, kept in it, written on it, and flows from it. That is a heart infused by God’s word seeking him daily.
-Sam Dilbeck
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