With All Your Heart

“Amaziah was 25 years old when he became king…..He did what was right in the LORD’s eyes but not with all his heart.” 2 Chronicles 25:1 & 2 (CEB)

Pastor Robby referenced this verse recently in one of his sermons and it lodged itself in my thoughts. During a little study I discovered that basically Amaziah got off on the right foot (doing right in the LORD’s eyes) but he got his feet tangled up and didn’t finish so well. His trouble began after his defeat of the Edomites when he brought back the idols and gods of those people and worshipped them himself.

Maybe we don’t have little idols sitting in our homes that we bow down before or burn incense for but those things that take our attention, our eyes and hearts off of our Savior are idols, nevertheless. If it replaces our time with and for the Lord, then we become like Amaziah.

In the Kew King James Version of the bible the word used is loyal, his loyal heart. From enduringword.com I found this explanation:

“The root idea of the Hebrew word translated ‘perfect’ [loyal in the NKJV] is being whole, complete. Imperfection of heart consists in incomplete surrender. Some chamber of the temple is retained for selfish purposes. What it was in the case of Amaziah we are not told, but the fact remains that notwithstanding the general direction of his life…the whole heart was not set on doing the will of God.” (Morgan)

We may not even realize our incomplete surrender until someone calls it to our attention. In Amaziah’s case the LORD sent a prophet, and the king sent him hiking. He didn’t want to hear the words of the prophet, so he sent him away.

In reading through to the end of the chapter, we are told that Amaziah fled from Jerusalem, but conspirators had him followed and killed. What a terrible ending for one that started out as doing good in the eyes of the LORD.

I want to be certain I have surrendered ALL of my heart, don’t you? How do we accomplish that task?

We have to surrender our hearts to God every day. When we wake up each morning, before our feet hit the floor, we have to say, “God, before I even start my day, I surrender my heart to you today.”

God needs to be Lord of our feelings, minds, and emotions. We surrender our hearts to God when we are filled with God’s love.

“The person who doesn’t love does not know God, because God is love.” 1 John 4:8 (CEB)