HOW TO HAVE A PERFECT HEART TOWARD GOD

2 Chron. 16:9

Morning Meditation 9/4/2015

Verse 9 says, “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars.”

Let me encourage you to read this whole passage from 2 Chron. 16. Asa the king of Judah made a league with the king of Syria to protect him from Baasha king of Israel. Now it worked, but it is never God’s will for His people to make alliances with the world for protection or supply. After Asa did this, the seer (prophet) Hanani came and did some uninvited counseling to king Asa. Asa did not like what he heard. In fact it infuriated him. The way the Bible puts it, “For he was in a rage with him because of this thing.” He got so mad at Hanani that he put him in prison because of it. It is amazing how people get mad at the preacher for what God says. I guess they still have enough sense and enough fear of God not to take Him on directly.

Asa’s chastening was permanent. God’s message to him was, “therefore from hence forth thou shalt have wars.” Not a very good future would you say? In other words, God gave nation peace from war as long as they were right with Him. God wanted Asa to trust Him but he acted on human viewpoint instead of faith in God. When a man’s heart is not right with God, he will not be right with man. Verse 10 of this chapter says, “And Asa oppressed some of the people the same time.”

We also learn that Asa did not respond to the chastening of the Lord. Verse 12 says, “And Asa in the thirty and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceeding great: yet in his disease he sought not to the LORD, but to the physicians.” God is about the last one to be consulted today in the case of illness. Instead of developing a faith that will find the God who heals, we go to the skilled physicians. Is it wrong to go to doctors? No. But I’m saying that God should be the first to be consulted. He will tell us how He wants to heal. But that is another subject.

Our text says, “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.”

How do we have a perfect heart toward God? I will make a few suggestions:

FIRST, ACKNOWLEDGE A DEFECTIVE HEART

Hanani the Seer brought God’s diagnosis to Asa. He was saying to the king, “God says your heart is not right with Him.” This is never the kind of news we want to hear. Asa was no exception. But if there is going to be correction to a wrong path, we must first face the fact that we are on a wrong path. If our hearts are not right with God, we must begin by acknowledging that we have a defective heart.

What picture does God give of the natural heart? Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” This verse states the condition of all men. I know it comes from an old testament Prophet, but it is as true today as it was then. To show the tendency to avoid facing this fact consider this. How many times have you heart people say, “He may have done wrong, but he has a good heart.” There is a string between the natural man’s heart and his eyes that when pulled can close truth to the eyes like a Venetian blind shuts out light. The heart protects itself against exposer.

Jesus commented on the natural heart. Jesus said in Matthew 15:19, “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.” The Jews of Jesus day were like Asa. Even worse. They did not just put him in prison, they crucified Him.. He diagnosed the real problem. It was a heart problem.

SECOND, WE NEED A HEART TRANSPLANT TO HAVE A PERFECT HEART

Unclogging the arteries is not enough. We need a new heart. I want to give you some good news. You do not have to get on a waiting list. And there is no risk. The Divine Physician has never lost a case. However, I do want to tell you this. There will be a complete personality change when you get this transplant. There will be an adjustment time. And your new heart will suffer rejection from the flesh. But the Divine Physician has the medication to give that will MAKE THE FLESH accept the new heart. It will have no choice in the matter.

Ezekiel knew about this and said in Ezekiel 36:26, “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.”

This new heart is equivalent to the new man. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

No human doctor can do what the Creator can do. The doctors of this world can give you another heart but it is not permanent. This new heart that Dr. Jesus gives is permanent and will get you across death’s river into the promised land of His presence in perfect health. Now if this new heart functions right something else must take place.

THIRD, WE MUST MAINTAIN A RIGHT HEART ATTITUDE

David discovered this truth and wrote about it in Psalm 51:17: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” Roy Hession in his little book called The Calvary Road has in it a chapter on Brokenness. This is the greatest little book in my estimation on personal revival. He says that personal revival comes when we come into a right relationship to Christ. He says, “If, however, we are to come into this right relationship with Him, the first thing we must learn is that our wills must be broken to His will. To be broken is the beginning of revival.”

Man by nature wants to be independent and walk without help. The pride of man makes him go to God as a last resort. So to walk before God with a right heart attitude we must constantly be aware of our standing in grace. If we do not, we will become proud of our faith, or our good works, or our denomination. Our standing before God is a grace standing. We have not improved in our own righteousness since we have been saved. You say, “Preacher, I have improved. I do not drink. I used to be a drunkard. I do not drink any more. I treat my family right. I go to church instead of the bars. I am better.” Let me ask you this. Who got you off drink? Who causes you to treat your family right? Who keeps you out of the bars? You say, “I do. I have changed.” Another question: “Why do you need Jesus? Or, do you need Him? Now that you say you have become a Christian, what role does He play in your life?”

Now let me give my personal testimony on this subject. I was saved in 1939. I have tried over and over again to make the flesh righteous. I worked myself to death and I could never accomplish it. When I get down to pray, I am plagued with wrong thoughts that go through my mind. You say, “Wrong thoughts are not sin.” The Bible says in Proverbs 24:9, “The thought of foolishness is sin: and the scorner is an abomination to men.” I have discovered that I can’t master my thought life. I have also discovered that I am constantly having to go before the Lord for forgiveness (1 John 1:8-9). So to be truthful with you, I have discovered that I am in need of grace in my walk as well as my entrance into the Christian life. If it is God’s unmerited favor that keeps me, as well as saves me, I have nothing to be proud of. It is not my righteousness it is His grace. It is not hard to maintain an attitude of brokenness when you know this. Then let me add,

WE MUST MAINTAIN A TRUSTFUL HEART

A perfect heart is a trusting heart. Asa had trusted the Lord in the past. Hanani said to Asa in verse 8: “Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubims a huge host, with very many chariots and horsemen? yet, because thou didst rely on the LORD, he delivered them into thine hand.” Asa had relied on the Lord in the past. Why did he mess up here? It is because it is not easy to maintain a trustful heart. You would think we would learn a lesson when we have God work a great thing in our lives. But faith is never easy. Faith is always contrary to the natural mind. When Asa was attacked by Baasha, he elected to go for the help at hand. He negotiated with Ben-hadad. He got his help but got in trouble with the Lord.

The Bible says in Hebrews 11:6, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” We are to walk by faith. It is a matter of the heart. We must maintain a trustful heart.

A good verse to close on is 1 Kings 8:61: “Let your heart therefore be perfect with the LORD our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments, as at this day.” Walking before God with a perfect heart means relying upon His Word in all things. A trustful heart goes to the Scripture for the answers it needs. A trustful heart goes to the Scripture for the direction it needs. Not only does it go there to find the answers, it submits in trusts in the truth it finds and does what the Bible says.

It is possible to find help in the world. Asa did. Did it pay? No. God is telling Asa that it is not possible to get help from Benhadad and from Him at the same time. God will not share His glory with another.

May the Lord help us to maintain a perfect heart toward Him.

In Christ

Bro. White