S126P1 – Yielded to Him: in heart
Jos. 24:19-23
Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.” But the people said to Joshua, “No! We will serve the Lord.” Then Joshua said, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the Lord.” “Yes, we are witnesses,” they replied. “Now then,” said Joshua, “throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.”
From a young age, he would tell anyone who would listen that he wanted to serve the Lord in ministry. When sitting through sermons, he would imagine himself up there at the pulpit speaking those words. As he grew, he learned the word and prepared to walk out this calling without reservation. While he was nurturing that calling, he also was nurturing a relationship with a young lady who had captivated him like no other. While he pictured their future leading a congregation together, she pictured a different future. She had no desire to be a preacher’s wife. When reaching the eventual crossroads, he would have to decide whether his heart would follow her or his call to service.
Joshua’s people were engaged in a very obvious form of idolatry. They literally worshipped foreign gods, false gods that had taken the place of the one true God in their hearts. It is important to note that the heart is what they had yielded to idolatry. The heart searches for love, intimacy, companionship and security. It can be used to love what is evil or what is pure. As the bride of Christ, we are to turn our hearts toward the bridegroom. While we might not worship obviously false gods, we must be careful of where we place our hearts. We cannot let those hearts follow whatever they desire, but we must be sure that they desire what is right. When the heart searches for its needs outside God first, we know it is not yielded as it should be.
The Lord will provide for the needs of our hearts, but we must go to him first. He is our first source of love, intimacy, companionship and security. He might provide sources of those things outside himself, such as through a spouse, but that is born of our first coming to know those things in him. Idols want to take that place in the front of the line reserved for the Lord. We are to seek his kingdom and righteousness first, then all other things will come. That means yielding our hearts’ desires to him before all others. Father, make us a faithful people whose hearts are yielded to You first and fully, knowing that You are the complete source of all that our hearts need.