Prepare Your Heart
“If you prepare your heart, you will stretch out your hands toward him. If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away, and let not injustice dwell in your tents. Surely then you will lift up your face without blemish; you will be secure and will not fear.
Job 11:13-15
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Prepare Your Heart
Zophar would have fit in nicely with much of contemporary evangelical Christianity when he urges Job to “prepare your heart…stretch out your hands toward him.” This is much of what is taught in many churches today with decision theology. Their sermons may be moving, and they may speak of sin and grace and salvation in Christ alone, but then they confuse everything, much like Zophar, when they mix our own works in with salvation. They don’t see faith as an empty hand which receives all of God’s blessings, rather it is a tool in which the individual uses to “make a decision for Jesus” and “invite Him into your heart.” They see faith as something to be used to gain your own salvation. Faith is not a tool we use to earn salvation; it is a gift given so that we understand Christ has done everything. There is nothing in which we can do to prepare our hearts, this is why we sing with the psalmist, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit” (Psalm 51:10-12). For it is Christ alone who does all the action, He gives us a clean heart, He renews a right spirit with in us. And in our Holy Spirit given faith we cling to the promises of God for our Salvation which He alone has won for us.
Job 11:13-15
+
Prepare Your Heart
Zophar would have fit in nicely with much of contemporary evangelical Christianity when he urges Job to “prepare your heart…stretch out your hands toward him.” This is much of what is taught in many churches today with decision theology. Their sermons may be moving, and they may speak of sin and grace and salvation in Christ alone, but then they confuse everything, much like Zophar, when they mix our own works in with salvation. They don’t see faith as an empty hand which receives all of God’s blessings, rather it is a tool in which the individual uses to “make a decision for Jesus” and “invite Him into your heart.” They see faith as something to be used to gain your own salvation. Faith is not a tool we use to earn salvation; it is a gift given so that we understand Christ has done everything. There is nothing in which we can do to prepare our hearts, this is why we sing with the psalmist, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit” (Psalm 51:10-12). For it is Christ alone who does all the action, He gives us a clean heart, He renews a right spirit with in us. And in our Holy Spirit given faith we cling to the promises of God for our Salvation which He alone has won for us.
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