Would you arrive at the start line for a 5k race without any training or without stretching first? My guess (and hope) is that you wouldn’t do that. You wouldn’t do that because you would be unprepared for the race, especially if you had spent the last six months being a couch potato. Your body wouldn’t be ready to do from sofa spud to running man/woman. Without stretching you are elevating the risk of injury to yourself. We all know that preparation is a key to success. Why then do we try to serve God without first allowing Him to prepare our heart? We are a society that prides itself on producing results. However, I believe the Bible would argue that the preparation of our heart is more important than what we do. Who we are in the Lord is more important than what we do for the Lord. This becomes evident in the life of Ezra the priest. Ezra 7:10 says, “For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the Law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel.” Notice the order of events: heart preparation and change led to obedience, and then finally it was time to teach others. This is the same process that we saw David go through in Psalm 51.
Ezra knew his purpose and the way he was going to be used by God. However, knowing our purpose doesn’t mean we get to skip the preparation process. Ezra had a several month journey ahead of him in walking from Babylon to Jerusalem. While we don’t know everything that happened on his journey, I can guarantee you God used those months to prepare Ezra. The same is true for you and I. What is happening in our life right now may not make a lot of sense. However, God is going to use it for a purpose you may not understand yet. As someone has said, “the heart of the matter is the matter of our heart.” Too often we rush into doing things. We measure success by how much a person can do and the results produced by their effort. Yet, we often neglect the most important aspect of being used by God. If our heart isn’t right with God, it doesn’t matter what we do or what results are produced. From preparing our heart, we then must move into obedience. You can’t teach what you don’t obey. When we try to teach something that we aren’t doing ourselves, it rings hollow. However, what people see in your life is what they are more likely to trust you to teach to them.
How is your heart? Have you, like Ezra, prepared your heart to seek the Lord? Are you diligent to have a time each day where you pray, read the Bible, and memorize Scripture? Are there people who will hold you accountable for your words and actions? These are just a few of the things that are necessary for our heart to be prepared by God. They are also necessary for us to be obedient to God. Let’s strive to allow our life to be the evidence of our words which both point others to Jesus.
By His grace and for His glory,
Pastor Justin