Arise therefore - 1 Chronicles 22:19
04/14/2011 09:44
Our text today revolves around one of the greatest problems that Christians are facing today. Notice the first part of 1 Chronicles 22:19 - "Now set your heart and soul to seek the Lord your God: arise therefore". Within this verse are two equally important principles for the child of God to follow if he wants to be used and blessed of God. The first principle is the setting or fixing of our hearts to seek the Lord. Every single person who has ever lived, is driven by the desires of their heart. The heart dictates what we do in life. Whether saved or lost, every person does what they do because their heart has already dictated that direction. For the Christian, this principle must take hold of us as well. We must purpose in our heart to do and be everything that God wants for us. You will either be driven by what this world's system is pushing, or by what the Bible is teaching. Navigating our way towards God's Word will take purpose. That purpose begins in our hearts. We must make a conscious decision in our hearts to seek all that God wants for us and from us. Every decision that we make must have God's stamp of approval and the backing of the Bible. Satan will try to get us to make our decisions based on our own will or the popular movements of the unsaved world. We must do as this verse teaches - set or fix our hearts and souls to seek the Lord our God.
This first principle is necessary but worthless unless it is coupled with the second principle from our text - "arise therefore". Decisions of the heart must be partnered with action. What we purpose, we must do. The context of this verse is David's charge to Solomon to build the Jewish Temple. Before this project could begin, it needed to be deeply entrenched in Solomon's heart. If Solomon sought the Lord and His glory, the building of the temple could get done. If Solomon had this desire in his heart and yet never physically arose to do the work, the temple would not be built. The same principle applies to us in our service to the Lord. The first thing that must take place is a setting within our hearts the desire to put God first and serve Him in whatever capacity He calls us to. Without that purpose comes a vacuum that Satan will fill with something else that we can set our hearts and souls to. Once we have settled our purpose for God's use, we must then physically follow up that inward purpose with action. Many Christians at the end of a soul stirring message in church, will walk the aisle, bend at the altar and make promises to God. As that believer leaves the altar, the promises just made are just that - promises, until those promises grow feet and accomplish physically what the heart has just spiritually settled. If you have settled it in your heart that you need to be more faithful then follow it up with the action of implementing all that God wants from your life - church attendance, daily Bible reading, consistent prayer life, etc. If you have settled the need to forsake sinful habits in your life so that you can live unto God, then put that purpose into action by saying no to sin and that which tempts you into it, and yes to the righteousness that we find in God's Word. If you have settled in your heart the need to be a dedicated witness for Jesus, then put that purpose into action by witnessing to all that God brings across your path and set aside a night to be a part of the soul winning ministry at your church. If your church doesn't have a soul winning program, ask the pastor to start one with you. If he won't, then start one on your own with other believers with the same desires in your church.
If you have settled God's call to full-time service in your heart then follow up that purpose by doing all that you need to bring that call to pass. Start off by talking with your pastor on how you can begin the process of serving God full-time in your life. Anything that the Holy Spirit convicts us with, must first be cemented into our hearts, and then carried out in our lives. The inward settling and outward doing principles found in this verse are twins that we can never separate. While there may literally be millions of heart decisions made, sadly many of them are never actually carried out. Satan will try to squash the fulfillment of the heart desire, we must purpose not to let him. While Satan doesn't want us to set the things of God into our hearts, he knows that real battle will be won if he simply get us away from accomplishing it. Let us go further than just wanting to do what God wants, by actually doing it. If we "set our hearts and souls to seek the Lord our God" let us not stop there, let us "arise therefore" and be doing outwardly what we have settled inwardly. These two principles, when joined at the hip, will find us accomplishing great things for God and putting that rotten devil on the defensive and losing end of the battle for our hearts and lives.
Striving for the Saviour,
Pastor George Yurick