Hey dear reader, how are you today? I hope you are good and abiding in Jesus Christ and allowing Him to abide in you. I pray that you and I are continually strengthened to abide in Him all year round in Jesus’ name. You could check out some tips I shared here and here.
So, I will be building on something that occurred to me this week at two different times as I abode with my Jesus. Two different days and times this past week, I said to myself, ” so my Jesus can read my mind, Jesus reads my mind.” It was more or less like an aha moment for me. Luke chapter 6 shares with us the good works of Jesus Christ but Luke 6:6-8 shows us the interaction between Jesus Christ, the Pharisees, and the religious teachers. Jesus Christ was about to heal a man with a deformity in his hand on the sabbath but these religious people decided in their hearts and minds to ignore the good work of Jesus but dwell on the triviality that the miracle was about to be done on a sabbath day. So they made up their minds to rope Jesus in a crime of performing a miracle on the sabbath. They might as well have the means to save a dying man but watch Him die because it is a sabbath day!
Regardless of how dark their thoughts were, I think it is noteworthy that their plans were only just conceived in their hearts, they had not said it out just yet. But Jesus Christ could see it and hear it and so He addressed it there and then. You should check out the wise way Jesus addressed it in Luke 6:9-11.
Another aha moment for me this week as I read Luke 7:40 – And Jesus answered His thoughts. “Simon”, He said to the Pharisee, “I have something to say to you”. Jesus literally answered the thoughts of this man and His response was to address the posture and content of this man’s mind.
So I came to the absolute resolution that my Jesus cares so much about every part of our lives up until our thoughts. I mean our thoughts shape the decisions we make and what we become overall. So, it makes so much sense that He cares about the posture of our minds. One of the wisest men who ever lived, King Solomon couldn’t have put it any better –
As water reflects the face,
Proverbs 27:19
so one’s life reflects the heart.
In my own words, our outward countenance, demeanor, actions are from the outflowing of our hearts; whatever we do was first conceived and nurtured in our heart whether for a split second or for days.
At this point, I would like to point out that I am using heart and mind interchangeably because I believe the heart is a figurative expression for the seat of our thoughts and emotions.
Now that we have established that the Lord Jesus cares so much about the posture and content of our hearts, shall we discuss the posture He would rather that our hearts take?
Posture One : The Posture of Love.
And when the Lord saw her, His heart overflowed with compassion. “Don’t cry!”, He said. – Luke 7:13. This verse describes the heart and posture of the heart of Jesus towards a widow who had just lost her only son. Imagine this event happened on a Sunday, the religious leaders would probably not care so much about the woman’s loss but Jesus Christ regardless of the day or time His heart is always filled with compassion for us. And we can see it through all the good works He did while on earth including going to the cross to bear all of our sins.
Given that Jesus’ heart is always flowing with compassion for mankind and we are all made to conform to His image, our default heart posture should be that of love. II Corinthians 3:18, Romans 12:2, Romans 8:29
I. Love for Him;
II. Love for yourself
III. And Love for your neighbors.
I’d like to acknowledge that it may be challenging to maintain this heart posture always but the key to maintaining is abiding with Jesus. You see how overwhelmed with compassion He was in Luke 7:13, now imagine spending so much time with Him. He would definitely rub off on you.
Posture Two: The Posture of Faith.
Having Faith in Jesus actually gives Him the go-ahead to step in to help us with whatever it is we need Him to do. Because Jesus would not force Himself into our lives, many times when He steps in, it is because we or a loved one has authorized Him to step in through prayers or faith. In Luke 7:1-9, we see Jesus’ reaction to a Roman officer’s faith. When Jesus heard the officer’s word of faith, He was so amazed that He told the crowd behind Him that He had never seen faith like that in the whole of Israel. – Luke 7:9.
I believe He turned to share with the crowd behind Him about the officer’s faith to serve as an example for us to follow. I’d also like to point out here that the Roman officer’s faith sprung from somewhere within him, most likely his mind. And this must have happened from His knowledge of Jesus. Therefore, the more of Jesus we know, the more we trust Him because we would see and experience that He is good. Abiding in Him remains the best way to know more of Him and grow in faith in Him.
Posture Three: The Posture of Humility.
Jesus’ disciples, amongst themselves, were contending for who the greatest was. This contention seems to be mostly in the hearts and minds of the disciples because the bible tells us that Jesus read their minds as well- Luke 9:47. Jesus knowing their thoughts quickly gave them an illustration to correct the wrong notion they had in their hearts. And I believe we are able to read about it to date because Jesus wants us to have that same posture, the posture of humility.
Whoever is the least amongst you, is the greatest, Jesus said – Luke 9:48. This implies that regardless of the accomplishments that one may have, the one with the lowliest of spirits is the greatest. I mean take a look at Jesus, the King of Kings, who came down to earth to roll with us. He even washed the feet of His disciples, to say the least of the lowliest things He did while on earth. Yet again, only by abiding in Him are we able to learn from Him how to be lowly in spirit.
Posture Four: The Posture of Reverence.
Luke 7:37-39 describes the posture of a woman’s heart expressed through her actions towards Jesus. Although, she had been written off by the world, she approached Jesus with reverence. She showered Jesus’ feet with so much love; she wiped His feet with her tears and hair and went ahead to anoint His feet with oil. This woman showed her reverence for the Lord through her actions which stemmed from her mind without saying a word. Jesus acknowledged her act of service as an admirable one worthy of emulation. – Luke 7:40-48
And these are the postures I believe the Lord wants our hearts to take, my dear sister and brother in Christ. May we not fall short of His standard for our lives in Jesus’ name.
Amen
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