In Touch with Our Feelings
When my heart is clean, my head is more perceptive. When my heart is clean, I think more clearly. I can see better, and I can hear better. Before Pentecost, Peter never understood the Cross; when Jesus told him that he must suffer, Peter rebuked him. For Peter, the Cross seemed wrong. He could not think like Jesus thought. However, on the day of Pentecost, Peter came out of the upper room anointed with the Spirit, looked at the crowd and said, “Let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say” (Acts 2:14). Suddenly Peter saw the Cross as the fulfillment of the Scriptures. He knew the Cross was right.
Human minds are always servants. If they are servants of self-interest, then they will seek to justify self-interest. If they are wholly possessed by God, then they become his servants. Then they can understand his ways; they can see his truth.
George Mueller had been a Christian for four years. One evening he came to a place of total surrender. In the next four hours, Mueller explained, he learned and understood more of Scripture than he had in the preceding four years of his Christian life. We must be totally surrendered in order to see God’s ways. If our hearts are divided, we will have a divided head. If God possesses our whole hearts, then our minds will become instruments of his Spirit.
—Dennis Kinlaw
This Day with the Master
James counseled, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways,” (James 1:5-8). Today’s devotion sets this truth in the context of renewing our minds in Christ: “We must be totally surrendered in order to see God’s ways. If our hearts are divided, we will have a divided head. If God possesses our whole hearts, then our minds will become instruments of his Spirit.” Pray into total surrender today. Ask the Lord to reveal those areas of your life you cling to still; those things you wish to cover and try to rationalize. Lay your life open before Him; allow His sanctifying work to proceed. —DH
—David Hoskins, Founder & Care Guide, Sanctuary Clinics