This wraps up my three-part series about how to live rightly on and with God’s earth. The first part focused on how to live within the context of your life and your family’s life. The second part pointed towards engagement in community and civic life. This third part goes in an unexpected direction. It goes inside. To your heart.
Start with the Heart
I am convinced that the core reason we don’t progress in living ever more holy, courageous, and loving ways towards other people and God’s earth is that we haven’t given our hearts fully to God. In other words, we haven’t allowed God’s Spirit to work with us to make our hearts new.
Are you thinking, “Why would my emotions have anything to do with the state of the world?” If so, then we need to take a step back.
In the Bible, the heart is the center of not only our emotions but also our will and even thoughts. The Bible sees them as a whole unit.
This is why Proverbs 4:23 is the epitomy of wisdom. There we read, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”
This parallels what Jesus said about our actions in the world being the fruit of who we are deep inside. In Matthew 12:34-35 we hear Jesus saying:
...For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things. And an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.
And this is the way Peter Kreeft puts it in Prayer: The Great Conversation:“The heart is what wills, what loves. Purity of heart is to will only what God wills.”
I’ve come to believe that the Good News of the Christian faith is that by believing in Jesus we are made right before God and a door is opened that allows God to begin to reshape our whole inner being. And this reshaping begins to align our everyday lives with God’s ways. That, in turn, will bring forth good things, good fruit. Our eternal life begins right then.
If our hearts are in the process of being transformed in this way, then we will be on the way to compassion, mercy, and the courage. We will perceive the world as God perceives it. Through God’s wisdom, we will then be able to bravely apply God’s love in the right ways in this world.
This is why, I believe, in John 3:16 God’s love of this whole world is connected with individual people coming to ongoing belief in Jesus. Believing people will have pure hearts that generate good actions that will radiate out, bringing goodness to all of Creation.
Christians have recognized this. William Penn wrote, “True godliness does not turn people out of the world, but enables them to live better in it and excites their endeavors to mend it.”
When we are new creations through grace and God’s work in us, we will literally not be able to turn on loving kindness in some situations and turn it off in other others.
And when we do things counter to God’s shalom way of living, our hearts will tell us and unsettle us. This will shape how we treat people. This will also be the case for how we treat God’s earth.
Grow Your Heart
So how do you allow your heart to be filled with God’s love?
The following are my suggestions from what I currently know and have experienced. I am still growing in these areas.
Worship Jesus and study his life: Fully giving of ourselves to authentic worship is not just something we offer Jesus. It also immerses us in the true reality of life in which we are humble being, overwhelmed by God’s love and majesty. Studying the life and words of Jesus has a powerful and complementary impact as well.
Pray: Pray daily. And make it a habit to make much of your prayer listening to God and being aware of what is happening in your heart. I’d suggest praying in the morning and then doing a prayer review at night about your day. What were the blessings of the day? The challenges? Where do you need forgiveness? Where do you need a changed heart and new patterns of living? Start focusing on specific aspects of the way you live and interact. Are you too quick to anger or are you too slow to speak up for your boundaries or God’s?
Above all, ask God to fill your heart, to align your will with God’s.
Do spiritual disciplines: I’d encourage you to read The Spirit of the Disciplines by Dallas Willard. This has deep insights. He highlights, for example, disciplines of abstinence (like solitude, silence, fasting, frugality, and sacrifice) and disciplines of engagement (like Bible study, worship, and prayer). Begin to grow your heart and the heart of your family by beginning to adopt further disciplines into your life.
Be with people with transformed hearts: The people we are with often shape who we are and who we become. Find people whose hearts and minds have been transformed as a result of their faith. Sometimes you will find them in churches. Sometimes you will find them in other places. Purposefully reach out to them. Spend time with them. Learn about their paths and their habits.
Be attentive: Mary Oliver wrote, “Attention is the beginning of devotion.” Being attentive to Creation around you in heart-centered way can grow your devotion to God. So become more alert to the trees, birds, insects, and other life around you. Learn about them and their patterns. Be open to their poetry, too. Like the way a toad hops or the pleasing texture and shape of an acorn. Make time to get out in the midst of the natural world as often and as long as possible.
Be attentive, too, to the Creation element that runs through the Bible. Memorize verses that relate to Creation.
In this wonderful essay Norman Wirzba made me think gardening might be another spiritual discipline of attentiveness.
Do right things: Interestingly enough, we can also grow our hearts by consciously living out wisdom and love in the world around us. In other words, by consciously choosing to do the right things we also shape patterns of will and being in our heart. This is, I’ve found, especially the case when doing the right thing is hard and even countercultural. That is when we most put our faith in Jesus.
Heart Renewal Emboldens
Don’t think of your heart’s renewal as the process of becoming quiet, passive, and powerless.
A Spirit-filled heart will give us peace but also lead us to act with bravery and strenuous commitment for what is right in God’s eyes, for building God’s kingdom.
Robert Alter’s striking translation of Psalm 27:14 reads: “Hope for the LORD! Let your heart be firm and bold, and hope for the LORD.” From the tenacity of the prophets to the lives of Jesus, Paul, and the apostles, we see God-filled people living bold, resolute lives in the face of danger and opposition.
We also see the boldness and resolutness of a God-filled heart in the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. We hear his faith, wisdom, and pain in his letter from a Birmingham jail.
You’ll know you’ve allowed God’s Spirit to begin transforming your heart when you begin to have the fruits of the spirit in combination with fortitude and creativity in doing right.
You’ll have strong love and love-filled strength. You will do good and bold things for others and for God’s earth.
To summarize this three-part series, may we all:
Actively seek to have God’s Spirit fill and transform our hearts.
Live out love towards God’s earth in every way we can in our lives and our families’ lives.
Speak out and act courageously in the wider world for God’s earth out of God-filled hearts
