Open Your Own Heart to God

Jack Miller, Saving Grace, July 5th:

“My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways.” – Proverbs 23:26

You reach the conscience of another person by first being changed yourself, and out of that change, in love, reaching that other person.  Most of the time when you we want to see someone else influenced, we look for the best method, how-to, or technique – something we can operate independently of changing ourselves.

When we do that, we usually succeed in making the relationship worse.  Solomon identifies what we really want in any primary relationship; we really want their heart.  It’s not wrong to want the heart of another; it is the height of maturity to want that.  However, the way we go about trying to get it is often the depths of immaturity.

Perhaps the greatest problem in our close relationships is that we don’t like to disturb the usual habits and routines.  If we’re really going to reach the conscience of another, we have to deal with the question of whether we have first given our hearts to God.  It is only as our hearts are open to him that we are able to open them to others.  This is where change starts.





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