MasterTruth

How to Have a "Fixed" Heart

I clearly remember the first time I ever heard a reference to Ps. 57:7 (My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.) It was decades ago at a Saturday night Kansas City Youth for Christ rally, and the executive director Al Metsker had just convalesced from open heart surgery. “My heart is fixed! Praise the Lord!” he shouted to the crowd, and he quoted the verse. How capturing that verse was for the situation!

Obviously, the intended meaning of that verse is not related to literal heart surgery. The word fixed in the Hebrew doesn’t mean repaired. It means firm, established, stable or firmly established. It’s the opposite of wishy washy. A fixed heart knows what it believes and in whom it trusts. David wrote the Psalm, and just before this fixed verse, he talked about his trust that God would send his mercy and truth from heaven to save him from the reproach of the enemies whose “teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.” (vs. 4) At the time, Saul and his men were chasing David. But the next two verses, he raises his head above the enemy and focuses on God and praises Him for the sure victory that he expected.

Inspirationally, this shows how to have a fixed, steady, stable heart. In the midst of any trial, rather than text a friend, automatically recount in your heart the character and promises of God. Praise Him for certain strength and victory in Him. Lift your eyes off your physical, mental and emotional troubles and spend quality time reminding yourself of who He is. He’s sovereign. He’s in control. He has this. Acknowledge and praise Him for this. (See Phil 4:6-7)

Doctrinally, this fixed heart is prophetic for Israel. In the second half of the tribulation after the antichrist shows his true colors and the Israelites have to run for their lives and they cry out to God, something is going to change. Until that point, they have not acknowledged Jesus Christ, whom they had pierced. Between the middle of the tribulation and the second coming, they are going to have a reckoning with Jesus, and their heart is going to be fixed. Because until then, their heart is stony. How do I know?

Here’s what the prophet Ezekiel said is going to happen with Israel (after the church age is over via the rapture and God turns His complete attention back to Israel): And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. (Ezek. 11:19-20)

Their heart is going to be fixed. Like literally, inspirationally and doctrinally. (Also see Ezek. 36:26-27.)  

Whether David, you or the Israelites, God is true and faithful, and He rewards those who actively trust in Him and His word. He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD. (Ps. 112:7)

R&J Shee

The Stunning Truth About God

Everything happens for a reason. Even non-believers say that. You know why that sentiment is true? Because God is sovereign, which means He’s in control. But how “in control” is God?

• A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps. (Prov. 16:9)
• The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD. (Prov. 16:1)
• Man's goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way? (Prov. 20:24)
• LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. (Jer. 10:23)

This level of God being in sovereign control of every movement, word spoken, decision and action is true beyond our comprehension. But knowing that, you can look at every event in the Old Testament through the lens of “God was in control of that for a reason.” And often that reason is because it’s a dry run for something that is yet to happen in the future. (The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Ecc 1:9)

Take David’s sins of adultery and having Bathsheba’s husband Uriah killed. If David, king of Israel, was such a great type of Jesus, why did he commit those sins? He totally missed the opportunity to be a “perfect type” like Joseph and Daniel, about whom no sins are recorded.

The sovereign prophetic “why” for David’s sins comes into focus in Psalm 51—David’s prayer of confession. Oh, by the way, what were David’s sins again? Adultery and plotting the killing of an innocent man. What were Israel’s main sins? Unfaithfulness to God/Adultery (Num. 25:1-2) and plotting the killing of Jesus, an innocent man. (1 Thes 2:14-15).

David’s anguished prayer of confession in Psalm 51 is in lockstep with Israel’s future turning to God in national confession of the same sins. They will finally look upon Jesus, whom they have pierced and mourn in bitterness of soul. (Zech. 12:10) David’s sins and his eventual Ps. 51 confession are a white board illustration of the sins of Israel and how that will play out in the future. When? That day. The Day of the Lord. (Zech. 12)

David was definitely dealing with his own sins, but prophetically, also representing the sins of Israel. He asked to be delivered from “bloodguiltiness.” (Ps. 51:14) Both he and Israel were guilty of the shedding of innocent blood.

The end of David’s confession reveals what happens after Israel humbles itself, becomes contrite in heart and is finally forgiven. I’ll summarize it. (Ps. 51:14-19)

• Israel will praise God and sing aloud for His righteousness.
• Israel will grasp that burnt offerings mean nothing compared to having a broken spirit and broken and contrite heart before God.
• The Millennium will commence with God repairing the walls of the yet-to-be torn-down Jerusalem.
• Sacrifices (that will have stopped when the antichrist desecrates the yet-to-be-built temple) will commence throughout the Millennium with Israel’s heart restored.

What happened in David’s life happened ever so sovereignly. God wove David’s specific sins and his forgiveness into the tapestry of the Old Testament. God was declaring the end from the beginning through the sovereign events of history. God’s divine direction has always been building up to the completion of the tapestry, and what we will see is Jesus Christ ruling and reigning on the throne. It’s where everything is headed and is what the Bible is about.

R&J Shee

The Sun Calls

Did you know the light that streams through your window every morning is the grace and mercy of God on full display rising and setting on your day? He hopes everyone notices and responds to His call to attention. Meanwhile, we take His daily exhibition for granted because the sun rising and setting is as normal to us as breathing.

We often rightly use the words “light” and “darkness” metaphorically, as in “seeing/comprehending” and “not seeing/comprehending.” But we don’t consider that light and darkness are going to be actualities in eternity. In heaven, there won’t be any need for the sun, because the light of the glory of God and of the Lamb will shine there (Rev. 21:23).

But in hell? Light and darkness can’t be in the same place. Impossible. The glory of God and of the Lamb will not be there. People are deluded who say they wouldn’t mind going to hell and hanging out with their buddies. They won’t even be able to see their buddies, or their hands in front of their face. And that’s just the beginning of the horror of hell. The sinning angels are in hell right now, and here’s what the Bible says about them: For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment… (2 Pet. 2:4).

But for now, the sunlight is a witness to us to look to the light of Jesus Christ. It testifies to us every single day. Take a look at this, The mighty God, even the LORD, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof. (Psalm 50:1-2) All while the sun is up, it’s calling the earth to Jesus—the bridegroom. Jesus says, I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. (John 12:46)

God makes clear that natural physical light is the witness of Jesus to the whole world so that when each of us faces Him in the end, no one can legitimately say, “I didn’t know. No one ever told me.” God told everyone. He has spoken to the earth from the rising of the sun to the setting.

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof. (Psalm 19:1-6)

Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: (Romans 1:19-20)

Make sure that you and your loved ones comprehend that the sun is a manifestation of the Son. Receive Him as savior. Here’s more about that. Light is for this life only to those who don’t know Jesus. After that, the sun goes down forever.

But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings. (Malachi 4:2a)

R&J Shee