Today is Monday Manna at An Open Book and it's nice to be able to participate once again! Here's what she chose for us today:
The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.
~Deuteronomy 30:6
Wowzers! What a doozie for today! It made me do some studying and that's never a bad thing to do! :) Circumcision is a word many of us shy away from—especially explaining what it is...at least when it's referring to the physical act. LoL But this isn't talking about physical circumcision.
Circumcision is not something you can do for yourself—physically or spiritually. God is the only One who can circumcise our hearts. How? Through the blood of His Son, Jesus. He purifies us and sets us apart for Himself.
Taking the view that circumcision means to purify or set apart helps me understand this more...God will purify our hearts so that we can love Him with everything in us and live—really live. We're not to live for ourselves, but for God alone. In Him we have newness of life and through Him we have eternal life and out of love for Him we are to live lives that glorify God. That's when we're really living, when we're living full-out for Him.
What a promise this verse holds for us! It's not just talking about us, but about our children, too, and as women and moms, we're all concerned about our children. It's not that our faith can save our kids—each person is responsible for their own faith, but as we live for God, our children see our faith and it affects them and influences them, leading many of them to salvation. What greater gift can we give our kids than the gift of salvation and God's love?
It all starts with God circumcising...purifying...our hearts so we can love Him and live.
Are you loving God with all your heart?
Are you really living—living for God?
Good thoughts...lots to think about!
ReplyDeleteVery true Peej. We can't do the circumcising ourselves. It takes God to do that for us when our heart is ready. Awesome entry:)
ReplyDeleteI love these reminders of God's power, and our inability to do for ourselves. He is all-powerful. Only He can purify - circumcise - our hearts.
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