From Grace Oasis: Start Today Chasing After God With All Your Heart

I came across this prayer video recently. As I often find when I come across these, this one was timely. God is doing a lot of cool stuff right now in this time.

Before we pray, let's first take a moment to listen to God's Word, and then we'll pray together.

There is a conversation inside you that no one else hears. It happens long before you speak, before you send the message, before you choose the tone of your reply. It lives in your thoughts, your attitudes, and the quiet motives of your heart. God sees that conversation. He listens not only to what you say, but to what you meditate on deep within. The Bible says in Psalm 19:14, "May the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be pleasing to You, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer." Notice how the Psalmist separates two things: the words of the mouth, and the meditation of the heart. It is possible to say the right things while thinking the wrong things. It is possible to speak faith but meditate on fear, to speak kindness while carrying resentment, to say "I trust God" while your heart quietly holds on to doubt. 

You have probably experienced this. Maybe you have encouraged someone else with a Bible verse while your own heart felt heavy and uncertain. Or you have met people say all the right Christian phrases, but later it becomes clear that their intentions were not sincere. This is exactly why God cares about more than outward language. He cares about the inner life. He desires a heart that matches the mouth. God is not only looking for people who talk about loving Him; He is looking for people who actually love Him from the inside out. He is not honored by empty religious words. Jesus spoke about this very clearly. The Bible says in Matthew 15:8, "These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me." The warning is clear: it is possible to look spiritual on the outside and still be distant from God on the inside. The invitation is this: you do not have to live that way. You can ask God to bring your inner life and your outer life into agreement, so that what you say and what you think are both pleasing to Him. 

The heart is such an important part of your spiritual life. Your love, your hatred, your jealousy, your compassion, your bitterness, your forgiveness, your desires, and your idols live in the heart. That is why the Bible tells you to pay attention to it. The Bible says in Proverbs 4:23, "Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it." Everything you do flows from there. The choices you make, the way you speak, how you respond when you are hurt, how you act when no one is watching, all of it starts in the heart. If the heart is sick, the life will show it. If the heart is surrendered, the life will show that, too. 

The Bible is also honest about the weakness of the human heart without God. In Jeremiah 17:9, it says "the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" That means you cannot fix your own heart by willpower alone. You cannot simply decide to be pure and then change yourself from the inside. You need God to work on the deepest part of you. You need Him to shine His light on thoughts, attitudes, and motives that you may not even fully see. 

Jesus explained that what comes out of your mouth is actually a reflection of what is stored in your heart. In Luke 6:45, He said that "out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks." When your heart is filled with anger, it eventually spills into your words. When your heart is full of pride, it eventually colors the way you speak to others. In the same way, when your heart is full of God's Word, of gratitude and trust, that will also show up in what you say. So when you pray, "May the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be pleasing to You," you are not praying a small, casual prayer. You are asking God to step into the deepest part of you. You are inviting Him to correct, cleanse, and realign what you think about, what you dwell on, what you replay, and what you secretly hold on to. Real and lasting change in your life will always involve the heart. If you only change your words but never allow God to touch your motives, the change will be shallow and temporary. But when you come to a place where you hold nothing back, not even your heart, that is where transformation begins. 

God promised His people in Ezekiel 36:26, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh." This is what we need: not just new phrases, but a new heart. Not just better sentences, but a renewed inner life. And only God can do that work. Your part is to surrender, to be honest, and to invite Him in. Now, let's take a moment to pray together.

Father, help me never to look back in a way that pulls me away from what You are doing right now. Give me the grace, the strength, and the determination to keep my eyes fixed on You. Your Word says in Philippians 3:13-14 that I should forget what lies behind and strain toward what is ahead, pressing on toward the goal that You have set for me. Help me to live that out. Lord Jesus, I surrender all to You. You can have my life. You can have my hands, my thoughts, my desires, my plans. My entire being belongs to You. 

Lord, I ask that You would cut [off from me] every tie that still binds me to this world in a way that pulls my heart away from You. Break every unhealthy attachment to my past that keeps me from moving forward in freedom. If there is anything I still hold onto more tightly than I hold onto You, reveal it to me, and help me to let it go. Holy Spirit, bring me to that place where I truly surrender all to Jesus Christ and withhold nothing. I do not want to keep any hidden corner of my heart closed to You. I invite You into every part of who I am. 

If I am to be tested, Lord, let my heart be found loyal to You and not to Your blessings. Let me be loyal to the Healer, not just the healing. Let me value the Miracle-Giver more than the miracles. Help me to understand deeply that You Yourself are my greatest treasure. You are more valuable than any answered prayer, any open door, any promotion, any provision. Receiving You, Lord Jesus, is far more important and far more significant than anything I could ever receive from your hand. So I declare before You today that I am willing to let go of anything that stands in the way of having more of You. King Jesus, give me a heart that is truly content in You. Give me a heart that would rather have little on this earth and great treasure in heaven, than have much here and be empty before You. Your Word says in Matthew 6:21 that where my treasure is, there my heart will be also. Let my treasure be found in You. Let my heart be set on things above, not chained to things below. I believe, Lord Jesus, that if You remove something from my life, it is because You see what I cannot see, and You are protecting me and guiding me. If You ask me to walk away from certain people, places, or habits, it is because You are leading me toward something that brings life and not destruction. 

Help me to have faith that acts. Let my trust in You be seen in my choices, in my obedience, in my willingness to surrender. Your Word says in Mark 10:29-31, "Jesus said, 'Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for My sake, and for the Gospel who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.'" Lord Jesus, I hold on to this promise. I am willing to give up whatever You ask for the sake of the Gospel, and for the sake of knowing You more. I am willing to surrender all because I believe that in losing my life for Your sake, I will find it. I believe that in choosing You above all, I gain what can never be taken away. Knowing that I will spend eternity with You makes every sacrifice worth it. 

Holy Spirit, I ask for Your help. Search my heart. Do not allow me to love the miracle more than the Miracle-Giver. Do not allow me to turn any blessing into an idol. If my heart begins to cling to a gift more than to the Giver, correct me and draw me back. Let my focus be, and remain, on Jesus Christ. Let my love for You be greater than my desire for comfort, success, or recognition. Lord, I also pray that You would renew my mind. Help me not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of my mind, as Your Word says in Romans 12:2. Let my thoughts, my desires, and my priorities be shaped by Your truth and not by the standards of this world. Teach me to say "yes" to whatever draws me closer to You, and "no" to whatever pulls me away.

Father, I bless Your holy name. Thank You for loving me enough to correct me, guide me, and lead me into truth. In the precious and powerful name of Jesus I pray, Amen. 

If this prayer has touched your heart, please type "Amen," as a sign of faith. I pray that every blessing in this prayer is now upon you in the name of Jesus. And if you need a special prayer, feel free to let us know in the comments. We would be honored to pray for you. May the grace and pace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you always. 

One of the lines that caught my attention was the verse from Mark 10, regarding leaving family and houses and lands behind for the sake of the Gospel. Below is the full context for it:

23 Then Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

26 And they were greatly astonished, saying among themselves, “Who then can be saved?”

27 But Jesus looked at them and said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible.”

28 Then Peter began to say to Him, “See, we have left all and followed You.”

29 So Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, 30 who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

Mark 10:23-31, NKJV

In my experience, there’s been a part of me that has said “yes” to this extreme a measure, of literally forsaking everyone and everything else for the Gospel, in large part because as long as this ask stayed abstract, and as long as I went in with blinders on, I had no problem. I confess that the hesitation often has come when realizing, with the blinders even partially off, what I might -- or might not! -- have to to give up. The thing is, just because we are in a sense asked to give everything up, doesn’t necessarily translate to exactly that. Otherwise I’d be walking away from my home, my job, [my marriage!], and everything else, to go live on the streets of, say downtown Chicago, or the middle of Africa, preaching the Gospel. And yet, that has not happened. The thing is, while we are asked to give things up, we don’t know what those will be until the time comes. And oftentimes, what we are actually asked to give up is not what we think it might be. In some cases, yes, folks are asked to give up far more than they ever anticipated. But in others, the converse is true. It’s why, when I preach the Gospel on LinkedIn, I use a simple formula:

1.) Receive Jesus Christ as your King and Savior.

2.) Surrender your life to Him.

3.) Submit your will, your plans, and your desires to Him.

4.) Invite Him 100% into your heart.

5.) Confess Jesus Christ as your King and Savior, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead.

6.) Receive Jesus today, for today is the day of salvation.

That’s it. It’s easy to get into the weeds about other side topics, even admittedly important ones, about, say, abortion or homosexuality. But if I were to approach a self-proclaimed “gay” person, I don’t believe that my point of “attack” (if you will) will be about their sexuality, not unless they bring it up and don’t relent on the topic when I try to steer it back to the main topic, as detailed in the next sentence. My point of attack will instead be about their views on the God of the Bible and to tell them why He is good and loves them, not as they’ve chosen to be, but as what He made them to be originally. Generally, most self-proclaimed “gay” individuals will likely already have rejected God to the point of having hatred in their heart toward Him. And that’s honestly a worse issue than the outward sin, as bad as that even is. (I say that because, ultimately, God looks at our hearts first and foremost.) Anyone who chooses to reject the God of the Bible, period, will inevitably worship sin instead, no matter what that sin may be.

Anyway, I’ve already gotten into the weeds here with the above, but it kind of proves my point: first and foremost, it’s about getting people saved to the point that they themselves choose to surrender their sin to Him. Most of the time, getting into an intellectual debate about whether a particular sin is bad or not, gets nowhere, and particularly gets nowhere regarding the conversation that really matters, which is if the person will receive Jesus as their King and Savior, or not. The other topics are great for education once a person has truly committed to Christ, but not before. That’s why it’s on us, those who already believe, to set the example. Start today chasing after God with all your heart. When we do that every day, and it gets to the point where it’s obvious to others (and when we truly do it, it will be obvious to others), then and only then will non-believers look at us and become genuinely curious to want to know and follow Jesus.

After all, the Bible does say that the church will be judged first:

For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?

1 Peter 4:17, NKJV

Today is the day of salvation. Today is the day to chase after God with all your heart.

For He says:

“In an acceptable time I have heard you,

And in the day of salvation I have helped you.”

Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

2 Corinthians 6:2, NKJV