Aug 5, 2020
With My Whole Heart
5th AUGUST 2020
“I will praise You, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will tell of all Your marvelous works.” [Psalm 9:1, NKJV]
Remember the song that says, “When the music fades… I’ll bring You more than a song…”? Long before God desired a song, He desired our hearts. Praise from a whole heart captures God’s attention better than the best lyrics or melodies.
“Heart” in the Hebrew language is “Leb” which stands for the inner part of a person and refers to our will, mind, consciousness, emotions, and understanding.
In our opening verse, the Psalmist boldly declares that he will praise the Lord with all his heart. This is one way of expressing praise to God. Our will, mind, consciousness, emotions and understanding must praise God.
The question stands, how do we give something we don’t have? If our will, mind, consciousness, emotions, and understanding are not full of God’s praise, then how can we possibly praise Him with all our hearts?
If really, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, then it stands to reason that to praise God with all our hearts, we need our hearts to actually be full of praise. The book of Proverbs tells us to guard our hearts diligently.
We cannot let fear, sin and doubts into our hearts to choke our faith and our praise.
The Bible leaves us with a prescribed “thought list”. It’s not enough to keep the negative thoughts out; we need to bring godly thoughts in. Philippians 4:8 says “Finally, brethren, … if there is anything praiseworthy — meditate on these things.” Notice the last trait: praiseworthy. Determine, by the help of the Spirit, to keep your mind on things above, and the praise will flow out.
Dear Lord, help me to set my heart on You, that I may always sing Your praise, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Further Reading: Colossians 3:16
Bible In One Year: Ezekiel [19–22]
