God wants our Heart to be Loving with a Fresh Love Toward the Lord and to be at Peace

God wants our heart to be loving and at peace so that His life may grow in us in an unhindered way for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ; we need to renew our heart and love the Lord Jesus by turning our heart back to Him again and again to have a fresh love toward the Lord. Amen!

The Lord Jesus as the seed of life has come into the soil of our heart, and He desires to grow in us.

However, there are many problems with the soil of our heart.

There may be some hidden sins, some anxieties for things of this life, some deceitfulness of riches, and some shallow ground, so the seed cannot grow in us properly.

We need therefore to deal with our heart, that is, deal with the soil of our heart so that we may have the good ground that the Lord needs to grow in us.

We need to deal with our heart again and again, making sure we guard our heart with all vigilance, for from it are the issues of life.

What does it mean to deal with our heart?

We may have heard this expression, dealing with our heart, and, we must deal with our heart, many times, but we may not understand what it means to deal with our heart.

To deal with our heart is to open to the Lord and talk to Him about our situation, our condition, and our heart.

Sometimes we may just take a walk and converse with the Lord; He may remind us of a particular matter or a failure, and we simply confess to Him.

He may expose us of a particular weakness, and we open to Him and confess, ask for His cleansing, and deal with it in the Lord’s light.

Dealing with our heart and with the problems in our being should be something common among us and in our experience, for we love to talk to the Lord and open up to Him.

Many times the Lord bothers us about a particular reaction we had toward someone, or He shines on a thing that we love more than Him.

We need to remain in the Lord’s light, not fight back with the Lord as He shines on us, and agree with Him so that anything that blocks our fellowship with Him would be removed.

Sometimes we may not like what the Lord exposes and we may not agree to give up or put aside a certain matter.

We can be honest with the Lord, telling HIm how we feel, expressing what our concerns are, and just opening to Him.

The Lord is a compassionate One, He feels our weakness, and He understands our struggles.

He Himself asked the Father to let the cup pass from Him, but He concluded, Not my will but Your will be done.

As a human being, He understands us; as the divine One, He supplies us to tell the Lord, Not my will, Lord, but Your will be done.

God wants our Heart to be Loving, being Renewed to have a Fresh Love toward the Lord

In order for the Lord to grow in us in a proper way, our heart needs to be loving. God wants our heart to be loving.

A loving heart is a heart in which the emotion loves God, wants God, thirst after God, and yearns for God (Psa. 42:1-2; S. S. 1:1-4).

For us to have a loving heart toward the Lord, we need to have a personal, affectionate, private, and spiritual relationship with Him.

We need to not only have a soft heart but a heart filled with emotions toward the Lord.

We do not need to stir ourselves up in our emotions but simply turn our heart to Him again and again.

Our heart is so easily drawn away from the Lord, so we need to turn it to the Lord again and again.

Whenever our heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away, and the Lord can shine in us, infuse us with Himself, and give us more of Himself.

We must turn our heart back to the Lord again and again and have it continually renewed so that we may have a new and fresh love toward the Lord (2 Cor. 3:16).

In the Old Testament the book of Song of Songs shows us how we as God’s people should love the Lord, just as a woman loves her husband.

This love is so deep, so unchanging, and so strong, even as strong as death (8:6-7).

As we love the Lord and are renewed in our heart to have a fresh love toward the Lord, we will grow in the life of the Lord.

After the Lord Jesus resurrected, He met Peter and the other disciples on the seashore in John 21 and He guided his heart to love Him.

He didn’t ask Peter, What are you doing here, back to your old job of fishing? Rather, the Lord asked Peter three times, Do you love Me?

He wanted to lead Peter’s emotion to love the Lord and have a loving heart toward the Lord, for this will afford the Lord’s life an opportunity to work and grow within him.

Our heart was made by the Lord with the specific function of loving the Lord; our heart is our loving organ.

Mark 12:30 says, You shall love the Lord from your whole heart. Loving the Lord is a matter of our heart.

Our heart needs to love something; we love either the Lord or something or someone else.

Many times, our heart loves other things, other people, and other matters, for it is not renewed nor does it have a fresh love toward the Lord.

So we need to daily turn our heart to the Lord so that we see Him, enjoy Him, and love Him more.

The more we turn our heart to the Lord, the more we exercise to believe into Him, and the more our heart will be renewed, being sprinkled from an evil conscience.

Then, our heart will have a greater capacity to love the Lord.

Every morning we need to renew our heart so that we may love the Lord more and more; we need to have a fresh love toward the Lord every day.

The key is not to wait for the right moment when God turns our heart; the key is for us to take the lead to turn our heart to the Lord again and again.

Our Christian life started with our loving the Lord; when we heard the gospel and we realized how wonderful He is, we simply reacted by loving Him.

We may have not said that we love Him, but there was a reaction in us, a reaction to seeing this wonderful, sweet, amazing One who loves us so much.

We need to cultivate this sense of love within us toward the Lord.

We need to continually turn our heart to the Lord day by day to be renewed and have a fresh love toward the Lord.

He wants our heart to be loving toward Him, for when we love Him, He can grow in us and accomplish His heart’s desire in us.

May we learn to continually turn and exercise our heart in order to have our heart purged from an evil conscience and renewed again to love the Lord more and more!

May we never lose our love toward the Lord; may we never forsake our first love toward Him.

When we no longer love the Lord with the first love, degradation comes in.

All spiritual experiences start with love in the heart; if we don’t love the Lord, it is impossible to receive any kind of spiritual experience (Eph. 6:24; Rev. 2:4-5).

Our love for the Lord qualifies us, perfects us, and also equips us to speak for the Lord with His authority, for when we love the Lord to the uttermost with a fresh love toward the Lord, we will be filled and overflowing with Him (John 21:15-17; Matt. 26:6-13; 28:18-20).

We may not feel that we love the Lord right now, but deep in our heart there is love for Him, and we can turn our heart to Him again and again to have a fresh love toward the Lord day by day.

Lord Jesus, we love You. We turn our heart to You. Wash us and cleanse us with Your precious blood. May our heart be purged from an evil conscience. Renew our heart and cause us to love You more. Oh Lord Jesus, we want to love You more and more each day! Draw us, we will run after You! Keep us turning our heart to You so that we may behold You face to face and be infused with Your sweetness. Oh Lord, You are so wonderful. We love to be in Your presence to enjoy You. We love You so much. Grow in us. We open to You. May Your life grow in us little by little, day by day, as we exercise to turn our heart to You and love You. May we have a fresh love toward the Lord day by day. May we be renewed in our love to You every morning and keep turning our heart to You throughout the day so that we may love You more! Amen, Lord Jesus, we love You and we are filled with You to overflowing! We love to speak of You and to flow You out, for You are filling us to overflowing! Amen, Lord, we love You!

God wants our Heart to be at Peace, having No Offense or Condemnation in our Conscience

May we be those who daily cooperate with God to deal with our heart so that it may be the good soil for the Lord Jesus as the divine seed to grow in us unto maturity unto the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.

With regards to our will, we need to have a soft heart, a heart that is submissive to the Lord.

With regards to our mind, we need to be pure, focusing our thoughts and mind only on the Lord and being single in our goal of accomplishing God’s will.

With regards to our emotion, we need to have a loving heart, loving the Lord by turning our heart to Him day by day.

And with regards to our conscience, we need to be at peace, having no offense or condemnation in our conscience.

God wants our heart to be at peace so that Christ may grow in us unto the building up of the church.

Especially these last days, with the pandemic, wars, rumours of wars, and even more wars and injustice, our heart is easily troubled and anxious.

The Lord wants our heart to be at peace, so He comes to us to be our peace.

The Lord gives us His peace, but not as the world gives us peace; He Himself is our peace.

A heart at peace is a heart in which the conscience is without offense, condemnation, or reproach (Acts 24:16; 1 John 3:19-21; Heb. 10:22).

Our heart condemns us, whenever we sin or make mistakes; the function of our conscience is to condemn us whenever we do something that displeases God.

It is good to have the conscience alerting us of our sins, trespasses, mistakes, and failures; however, whenever the conscience alerts us, we need to come to the Lord and confess our sins so that His blood would cleanse us from any sin (1 John 1:7, 9).

We need to learn to deal with our conscience so that we have no offense in our conscience.

If we confess our sins in the light of God’s presence, we receive His forgiveness and His cleansing so that we may enjoy uninterrupted fellowship with God, having a pure and good conscience (1 John 1:7, 9; 1 Tim. 1:5; 3:9).

The key is our coming to the Lord to receive His shining; it is to walk in the light, even as He is in the light.

When we walk in the light, the blood of Jesus cleanses us of any sin, for we confess our sins and the Lord is faithful and righteous to forgive us of any sin and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.

May we deal clearly with all the offenses, condemnation, and reproach so that we may persuade our heart before the Lord (1 John 3:19).

When our heart is at peace, God can flow in us, and the law of life of God can continue to work in us to impart all that God is into us for our growth in life unto maturity.

The result of practicing fellowship with God in prayer is that we enjoy the peace of God, which is actually God Himself as peace mounting guard over our hearts and thoughts in Christ, keeping us calm and tranquil (Phil. 4:6-7).

With all the bad news around us, both in society and in our family life, it is easy to feel that “the sky is falling”; we need the Lord as peace to mount guard over our heart, patrolling before our hearts and thoughts in Christ Jesus, keeping us calm and tranquil.

May we let the peace of Christ arbitrate in our hearts by forgiving one another to put on the new man (Col. 3:13-15).

When the Lord’s peace arbitrates in us, we forgive others, and we become the happiest people.

The happiest person is one who has forgiven everyone.

But if we do not forgive others, we cannot be at peace or tranquil.

On one hand, we need to have a heart that loves the Lord, having a fresh love toward the Lord.

On the other hand, we need to deal with our conscience to have a heart at peace, tranquil, full of God as peace for the Lord to grow in us unto maturity for the building up of the church.

Lord Jesus, we want to walk in the light, even as You are in the light. Shine on us and expose anything in us that does not correspond to Your righteousness, holiness, and glory. We simply confess, Lord, anything that Your light shines on. We want to have a heart at peace. Wash us and cleanse us with Your precious, prevailing blood. You know all things Lord; we open to You, we agree with Your shining, and we repent and confess. May Your peace arbitrate in our hearts so that we may forgive one another and put on the new man. May God as peace mount guard over, patrolling before our hearts and thoughts in Christ to keep us calm and tranquil. Amen, Lord, keep our heart at peace, even in You as our peace. In You we have peace. In You we have tranquillity. You are our peace. Lord Jesus, we love You and we take You as our peace.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Minoru Chen in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1953, vol. 3, “The Knowledge of Life,” pp. 111-112, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Enjoyment of Christ and our Growth in Life unto Maturity (2023 Thanksgiving Blending Conference), week 3, entitled, Dealing with Our Heart for the Growth of the Divine Seed of Life within Us unto Our Maturity in Life for God’s Building in Life.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – How Do You Pray Confessing Prayers? Read more via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – A conscience void of offense – a guiltless conscience, a portion from, Lessons on Prayer, Chapter 9, by Witness Lee.
  – How to Have a Pure, Loving, and Soft Heart toward God, via, Bibles for America blog.
  – The condemnation of the conscience, a portion from, Practical Lessons on the Experience of Life, Chapter 11, by Witness Lee.
  – What is a Loving Heart and a Receiving Spirit? Read more via, Radio Newsletters.
  – What Does It Mean to Love God with All Your Heart? More via, BFA blog.
  – Having a heart for the Lord, a portion from, The Crucified Christ, Chapter 7, by Witness Lee.
  – Heart and mind, will and mind – excerpts from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, The (Set 1) Vol. 08: The Present Testimony (1), Chapter 27, by Watchman Nee.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Something every heart is loving: / If not Jesus, none can rest; / Lord, my heart to Thee is given; / Take it, for it loves Thee best. / Thus I cast the world behind me; / Jesus most beloved shall be; / Beauteous more than all things beauteous, / He alone is joy to me. (Hymns #547 stanzas 1-2)
  – O soul, are you weary and troubled? / No light in the darkness you see? / There’s light for a look at the Savior, / And life more abundant and free. / Turn your eyes upon Jesus, / Look full in His wonderful face, / And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, / In the light of His glory and grace. (Hymns #645 stanza 1 and chorus)
  – Dear Lord Jesus, precious Jesus, / Thy way only will I choose; / Though in tears while I’m obeying, / Yet I would not change my standing; / All I long for is Thy pleasure, / And the peace Thy love would bring. (Hymns #1158 stanza 4)