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The Heart of the Matter



            I hate seeing marriages end.  It is always sad when two people, who at one time loved each other, go their separate ways.
            It is just as sad, though, when people stay together physically, but leave emotionally.  Unfortunately, I know too many people for whom marriage has become nothing more than business proposition.  They live together and share the expenses, but their relationship is joyless, uninteresting and boring.  Their hearts are no longer invested and they have stopped growing as a couple.  It is sad when something that was exciting gets boiled down to something mundane, ordinary and is taken for granted.
            As sad as that situation is in a marriage, it is absolutely deadly in spiritual things!  We are missing something vital when serving God moves from being a privilege to being a duty.  We are in big trouble when spiritual things are boiled down to “keeping the rules” and “being faithful”, rather than being changed and made more like God.
            One of the best examples of this comes from the story known as “The Prodigal Son”.  In Luke 15, Jesus tells about a man who had two sons.  The younger took his inheritance, left and wasted everything.  Eventually, he “came to his senses” (verse 17) and went back home.  His father, who had been watching for him, celebrated his return.  It is a great story, but that is only half of it.
            The older brother refused to celebrate.  In fact, he was angry and said, “All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders.  Yet you never gave me (anything)” (verse 29).  He kept the rules.  He stayed and did what he was supposed to do.  The problem, however, was that he did not like it!  His service brought him no joy.  It was simply his duty.  He served his father and did what he asked, but (and here is the big issue) he had not become like his father!  He had not developed a heart like his father’s and because of that the older brother was just as lost the younger one. 
            As Jesus noted at another time, “These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” (Mark 7:6).  That was not a compliment!  In many ways, a joyless faith is as ineffective as no faith at all.
            Therefore, my simple prayer today is that we would know not only God’s commands, but also God’s heart. 
            After all, in faith, as with most things, going through the motions is not enough.   

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