April 28, 2009
A Circumcised
Heart
The LORD delighted only in your
fathers, to love them; and He chose their descendants after them, you above all
peoples, as it is this day. Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and
be stiff-necked no longer. For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of
lords, the great God, mighty and awesome. Deuteronomy 10:15-17
God
first spoke to Abraham and told him to circumcise his flesh and every male among
him as a sign of the covenant between God and His people. (Genesis 17:10-11) God
has spiritual realities for natural occurrences. God wanted His people set apart
from other nations—noticeably different--marked. The first occurrence of
circumcision was voluntary on Abraham’s part. He had to be willing to endure the
pain and agree then to circumcise the children at eight days old from that point
on.
In
Deuteronomy 30:1-6, God promised if those who strayed would return to Him and
obey His voice, He would
“bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again
from all the nations” no matter how far you
had gone. In verse 6 He says,
“And the LORD your God will
circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your
God with all your heart and with all your soul that you may live.”
Now He was asking that a spiritual circumcision be
done. He desired a cutting away of an old way of life--a cutting away of our
flesh that would set us apart from others.
We are
told in 1 Samuel 16:7, “For
the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but
the LORD looks at the heart."
The New
Testament explains it this way:
Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing,
but keeping the commandments of God is
what matters. 1 Corinthians 7:19
For in
Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything,
but faith
working through love. Galatians 5:6
For in
Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything,
but a new creation. Galatians 6:15
So, a
circumcised heart is what God desires, and it is revealed in three ways:
obedience, faith, and our lives manifesting the new creation that we are. Our
fruit should be different, because our heart is different. We cannot produce
good fruit from a bad heart. We must produce fruit worthy of repentance to show
that we are new creation. That is only done through obedience and walking in
faith!
Our
heart must be changed to reveal the heart of God that lives in us. His desires
become our desires. What He loves becomes the love of our heart. He loves people
more than anything. The things He hates become the objects of our hatred. He
hates sin, because it separates people from Him.
It is
voluntary. We have a choice to allow the cutting away of the old life. It is
painful, and it is very personal. We are individuals. God works in each of us
individually to rid our lives of the old patterns each of us needs to cut away.
If we will allow this work in our life, just as He promised in Deuteronomy
30:1-6, He will bring us out of captivity, have compassion on us, gather us, and
our children will be greatly affected for generations! Best of all, we will live
and not die!
Are you
willing to cut away the flesh to have the heart of God?
God Bless!
Janet
Fairbrother