Last week I wrote briefly about the Father’s sky shredding declaration that he is and always will be well pleased with the Lord Jesus. As a follow up I am thinking of this passage in terms of contentment and delight for my own soul.
So many of my issues as a Christian stem from a declaration of discontentment, dissatisfaction and devaluation of the Savior and his glory. At the end of the day my sin (fill in the blank of arrogant idolatry) is rooted in my appraisal of stuff or people (mainly myself) as more glorious than Jesus. Sometimes this is a conscious choice of rebellion. But more often it is a result of idolatrous weeds growing out of the neglected soil of my heart.
Recently when preparing to have our house put on the market we did extensive work on the inside and outside of our house; among other things we worked on was the landscaping. Days after we had completed everything the yard was pristine; it was lacking weeds, very green, and colorful with the flowers. However, as time goes on the mulch gets bumped around, neglected flowers dry up, and weeds force their way through the previously finely manicured yard. I look at the yard and see my heart’s reflection.
The question is do I believe that my heart needs to be tended to? Or am I sadly deceived (by my heart) that I am good, as if I can have a good spiritual ‘work day’ and the weeds are gone and my heart is somehow glorified?
I need to regularly remind myself that my heart is, as Calvin rightly said, an idol factory. There are no strikes or work shortages; it just cranks out idols. I need to daily, even hourly, attend to my heart, applying the truth of Scripture, particularly the person, work and worth of Jesus Christ to it. I sin because I forget about the supremacy and sufficiency of the Savior. This is the bottom-line. So what do I do? I need to remind myself of who he is and what he has done. This is prescriptively laid out in Romans 12:
Romans 12:1-2 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
The target is my mind, the artillery is the gospel, the means is my life, and the goal is the glory of God. I need to be regularly canvassing the soil of my heart, inspecting it with the floodlight of the word of God, that I might teach, reprove, correct and train it in righteousness (2 Tim. 3.16).
To this end it is pivotal that we regularly survey who Jesus is and what he has done, that we might fight our idolatrous tendencies to devalue him and instead find him glorious. I encourage you to reread through this list and make your own list as to the work and worth of Jesus, that you might daily say to your own heart, those around you and even back to the Father, “This is my beloved Savior, with whom I am well-pleased.”