Tilling the Soil of the Heart: Worship..Craig Denison Ministries

 Tilling the Soil of the Heart: Worship

Craig Denison Ministries

Weekly Overview:

This week we'll look at a vital spiritual practice to all those seeking to grow in God:tilling the soil of the heart. Jesus spoke in Matthew 13 of two different types of soil—hard and soft. God longs for us to till the soil of our hearts that we might be receptive to the seed of his word and bear fruit. May your heart become more responsive to the presence, will, and love of God this week as you cultivate good soil with the help of the Holy Spirit.

Scripture:“Ascribe to the Lordthe glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.” - Psalm 29:2

Devotional:

One of the most powerful ways to till the soil of the heart is through worship. Authentic worship is a powerful exchange of God pouring his love out on us and us giving him our hearts in return. In worshiping through music, our hearts naturally become soft and receptive to God’s love as we encounter his goodness and engage in adoration of the only One worthy of our affections.

God created music with an innate ability to affect us at our core. Music has the power to fill us with peace, joy, and anger; it can cause tears to well up in our eyes and even make the most mundane events beautiful. Martin Luther said, “Beautiful music is the art of the prophets that can calm the agitations of the soul; it is one of the most magnificent and delightful presents God has given us.” By consistently engaging in worship through beautiful music, we provide a framework for the Holy Spirit both to till the soil of our hearts and to fill us with the seeds of God’s presence and perfect character.

The Bible is brimming with admonishment to worship through song. Paul tells us in Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” Hebrews 12:28 says,“Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe.” Scripture is so clear about the importance of worship because God longs for us to be a people marked by consistent reminders of his unconditional love. He longs for us to live in response to his presence and plans rather than struggling through life by placing our trust in the world over him.

God longs to reveal his heart to you in worship. He longs to show up and meet you in your room, car, workplace, and house of worship. You were created to encounter God and engage in the cyclical act of giving and receiving love throughout your day. When you worship here on earth, you posture your heart towards eternity. Making the willful choice to give your affections to the One you will spend eternity with, you also discover your purpose for which you were made: to live in unhindered communion with your heavenly Father.

If you feel like the soil of your heart is hard, your life isn’t marked by the fruit of the Spirit or you can’t escape from a temptation—simply take some time and encounter God in worship. God’s presence is wholly available to you today. His love and grace are steadfast towards you. May your time in guided prayer be marked by the nearness and power of the Holy Spirit as you encounter the unconditional love of God.

Guided Prayer:

1. Meditate on what Scripture says about worship through music and reflect on how beautiful music moves your heart.

“Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.” Psalm 100:1-5

“And whenever the harmful spirit from God was upon Saul, David took the lyre and played it with his hand. So Saul was refreshed and was well, and the harmful spirit departed from him.” 1 Samuel 16:23

2.Engage in worship in whatever way moves your heart. Receive the presence and love of your heavenly Father and give him your heart in response. Remember the importance of giving and receiving love in worship.

“My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast! I will sing and make melody!” Psalm 57:7

“I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.” Psalm 13:6

3. Journal about the effects worship has on your heart. Reflecting on and writing down the things God is doing in our lives helps us to actualize that which is often left internal and forgotten.

Psalm 104:33 says, “I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being.” Until your life is devoted to worshipping God, you will never find total rest. When we give ourselves to the things of this world it repays us with stress, burden, and cares rather than unconditional love. It’s only in devoting yourself to God alone that you will find satisfaction and reciprocation for your love. Live today in full devotion to God. Do everything as an act of worship. And find that God repays your adoration ten fold by pouring out his wealth of affection over you. May today be filled with the presence and power of God as you give and receive love.

Extended Reading: Ephesians 5:1-21

You Are Not Enough (and You Were Never Meant To Be)..MEGHAN MELLINGER

 You Are Not Enough (and You Were Never Meant To Be)

MEGHAN MELLINGER

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NIV)

A friend told me the other day that I’m highly favored and loved by God.

I didn’t believe it.

Me? Highly favored? My life is like an amusement park ride — sometimes I’m up, sometimes I’m down, sometimes a screw pops out of something important, and someone’s putting up caution tape. The only consistency for me is always being stressed, sleepy and hungry.

The things I know I need to do? I haven’t done them.
The things I know I shouldn’t do? I've done them all.

No matter how hard I try or how many social media tutorials I’ve watched, my performance always falls short.

Why would a perfect God love someone so imperfect?

Because God is love.

Which makes these famous scriptures on the topic of love a clear snapshot of our God:

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7).

We’ve perhaps heard this passage at weddings and seen it crocheted on pillows, but it changes the game when we think of God this way, doesn’t it?

Because Jesus lived and loved perfectly, God loves His people without conditions or a checklist to satisfy. He’s not keeping score or holding a grudge against His children. His love is perfect. And it’s free. The price for it has already been paid in full by Jesus on the cross, and we don’t have to perform perfectly to earn it.

This is a perfect love from a perfect God, given as a gift to imperfect people.

Seems too good to be true, right? It’s hard for us to believe this because the version of love we see every day is conditional. It’s a love based off of the numbers on the scale or the numbers in our bank accounts. Swipe left or swipe right — if you don’t measure up, you’re not worthy. If you don’t get the grades or the job, you’re not enough.

The truth is: We are not enough.

The good news is: We were never meant to be.

This means we are free — free from our fears, our obsession with performance, our unrealistic expectations.

We will always fall short, but God isn’t keeping a tally of every mishap and slip-up to condemn His people. He offers forgiveness. God doesn’t need our performance — He wants our surrender. He wants us to give up trying to earn our worth and instead believe what is unfair and undeserved:

We are unconditionally loved.
We are redeemed by His sacrifice.
We are highly favored when we walk with Him.
We are not enough, but His love is.

And that’s the beauty of the gospel message.

Let’s believe it and receive it today.

Precious and perfect God, help me to remember that my worth is not in my performance but in who You say I am: loved without conditions. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Two Gates, Two Ways..Dr. Charles Stanley

 Two Gates, Two Ways

Dr. Charles Stanley

Matthew 7:13-14

Have you ever been accused of being a narrow-minded Christian? Those who level such accusations against us certainly mean it as an insult. According to Jesus, however, that’s the only way to walk if we want to experience abundant life now and eternal life with Him in heaven. But it will require a deliberate choice on our part, because no one automatically drifts onto this pathway.

The broad way is easy to find. In fact, unless you make a conscious choice to avoid it, you’ll find yourself on it. Most people like this wide path because it encompasses all philosophies and belief systems. Everything is acceptable, and everyone’s “truth” is valid. It even seems like the loving path because no one is left out. There are no restrictions, and freedom is unlimited. Or is it?

What those who travel this road fail to realize is that it’s a downward descent into destruction. All the promises it gives of satisfaction and fulfillment end in disappointment because it’s a path without God. But those who enter by the narrow gate of faith in Christ find the peace and joy of a relationship with Him that satisfies the heart. The gate is small because truth guards the entrance. The way is narrow because the Lord protects us with wise boundaries.

Which path are you traveling? You can’t have one foot on each, because they’re going in opposite directions. When you tolerate everything, you’re headed for destruction. But when you choose the narrow way, your life truly begins. You’ll walk with Christ day by day until He walks you home to heaven.

The Darkest Thought..Meg Bucher

 The Darkest Thought

By Meg Bucher

“Those who trust in themselves are fools, but those who walk in wisdom are kept safe.” - Proverbs 28:26 NLT

The darkest thought. The one that wants us to give up, stop trying and throw in the towel. The darkest thought will try to convince us we cannot live like this anymore. It will hold us hostage in sleep when we would normally wake and hostage awake when we would normally sleep. The darkest thought plagues us, pricking at our thin skin and picking open fresh wounds. There are days we don’t want to do life; it’s as simple as that. The enemy comes for all of us, one time or another, with a dark proposition. See it for the lie it is. And seek the help which surrounds us via counselors and medical professionals to help us heal when our nervous systems have broken down.

Life peels back like layers as we grow closer to God. As we become familiar with His voice, the darkest thought loses its volume. The Creator of the Universe assures us we are here for a reason, each one of us. He knew us before we were born. We are living the greatest love story of all time, in which He sent His only Son to save us. He will never leave us. We are never alone. He understands and meets us where we are at. No unmet expectations or disappointed glances …just unconditional, accepting, sacrificial, unfailing love. The loveliest thought. 

What Are We Thinking?

“Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” - Proverbs 4:23 NLT

This means more than just the actual organ beating inside of our chests. Often when the heart is mentioned, it represents the central seat of all we are, including our conscience, wisdom, will, and emotions. The Hebrew translation, in this case, and many others in the Old Testament, define the heart as “inner man, mind, will, heart, understanding; seat of courage.” The details further define it as the inner part, midst; heart, soul, mind, knowledge, thinking, reflection, memory, inclination, resolution, determination (of will), conscience, heart (of moral character), as seat of appetites, as seat of emotions and passions.” That’s an all-encompassing definition of what the writer of Proverbs is trying to convey by using the terminology, “guard your heart!” 

Literally, we are to guard our innermost being, will, heart, understanding, soul, mind, knowledge, thinking, reflection, memory, inclination, resolution, determination, conscience, moral character, appetite, emotions, and passions! “Guard your heart above all else,” Solomon wrote, “for it determines the course of your life.” Solomon was renowned as the wisest man on earth! He was King David’s son. He had everything he could have ever wanted in life and knew it meant nothing if the heart was tainted and unguarded. 

Guarding our hearts means taking the thoughts we notice and making them obedient to the Word of God. If a thought doesn’t line up …we don’t have to continue thinking about it! “It is the mind’s natural tendency to drift restlessly from one thought to another, moving between memories, imaginings, goals, and plans,” Leigh W. Jerome, Ph. D., wrote for pyscology.com, “the average person has about 6.5 thoughts per minute, or about 6, 200 thought per day (Tseng & Popping, 2020).” Though we cannot control every thought which comes into our minds, we surely have control over them when we notice them. By the power of Christ Jesus in us, we have the power to hold our thoughts captive to the Truth of God. In other words, we have power and authority in Christ Jesus to guard our hearts …above all else.

“…for it determines the course of your life.” The darkest thought of taking life into our own hands and removing it from the face of the earth most certainly determines the course of our lives. This thought is important to hold captive to the Truth of God and get it out of our minds as quickly and efficiently as possible. Declaring, in the name of Christ Jesus, the darkest thought has no power over us. The darkest thought is a lie. A seemingly easy way out but a tragic loss for all who border that life here on earth. This, coupled with seeking professional counsel for the medical healing our nerves and minds sometimes need, leads us back to literal life. 

Intersecting Faith and Life:

“We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.” - 2 Corinthians 10:5 NLT

Thoughts are just thoughts. They are not in charge. God is in charge, and He has given us everything we need to fix our thoughts on Him …and on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith. There’s no easy way around what we have to do. 

“Those who trust in themselves are fools,” Proverbs 28:26 reminds us, “but those who walk in wisdom are kept safe.” (NLT) 

Paul wrote to the Corinthians the method by which we are to put our trust in the Lord by capturing rebellious thoughts and teaching them to obey Christ. 

Everyday life throws 6,200 thoughts into our minds! We know what we have to do and how we are to do it. When we are in the word of God daily, we will be able to better identify thoughts that don’t align with what the truth of God says. The Bible is God’s truth. Prayerfully, we can ask for a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit to help us develop the wisdom and astuteness we need to make sure we aren’t led down a rabbit trail of lies. Our minds are powerful! God made them that way and gives us everything we need to live wise lives with guarded hearts.

Further Reading: 

• Colossians 3:2-5
• Romans 12:2
• 2 Timothy 1:7

Become a Devoted Student of the Word..Joe McKeever

 Become a Devoted Student of the Word

By Joe McKeever

"What great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law which I am setting before you today?" (Deuteronomy 4:8)

Late one afternoon, I rested for a couple of hours in the home of friends in McComb, Mississippi before attending a church banquet where I was to speak. I noticed in the living room, shelves contained all the writings of Jan Karon, the novels of John Grisham and David Baldacci, and others. Looks like we read the same stuff, I thought. And another thought occurred…

The reason you won’t find those books on shelves at my house is after we read them, we’re through with them. We pass them on to family members or donate them to Goodwill. But one thing we never do is pull one out which we’ve read before to read again, just to see if we missed anything the first time through. And yet…

We do this with the holy Scriptures all the time. Every time we pass through a familiar chapter or well-known story, we find something new, something we had not seen before. It’s an amazing thing.

This is precisely what the Lord promised would happen. Matthew 13:52 contains the only mention of this in Scripture and it’s a keeper…

“Therefore, every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a head of a household, who brings forth out of his treasure things new and old.”

Imagine that. A homeowner who goes into his safe or a chest of valuables and counts out all the deeds, money, jewels, and other keepsakes he has owned through the years. But every time he does this, he finds new treasures. A pearl ring this time, a hundred dollar bill the next time, and so forth. He’d come often, wouldn’t he?

Jesus said a scribe–that is, someone considered an expert on the Scriptures–who gets saved now returns to the Scriptures that he loves and where he has found all these precious truths and insights. He finds them there, all the riches he has loved over the years. But lo and behold, every time he comes, he makes a new discovery. And so it is with opening the Word of the Lord.

There are so many reasons for God’s people studying and living in the Scriptures. Jesus called it our bread (Matthew 4:4). Job said it was more than his necessary food (Job 23:12). David called it a lamp unto his feet, a light unto his path (Psalm 119:105). Paul said it’s the source of faith (Romans 10:17).

If you call yourself a sincere disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no excuse for not becoming a devoted student of His Word.

A Prayer for the Mind of Christ..Jessica Van Roekel

 A Prayer for the Mind of Christ

By Jessica Van Roekel

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to your own interests but also to others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” (Philippians 2:3-7, ESV)

I’m talented at imagining worst-case scenarios. I see frowns and imagine they are directed at me, and then spend far too much time wondering what I did to cause it. If I ask someone if something’s wrong and they say nothing, I struggle to believe them. It’s easy to imagine offense, and when I spend too much time dwelling on thoughts like these, I get stuck in a me versus them cycle.

Living life on the defense can be a self-focused way of living. Boundaries are one thing, but constructing thoughts that build walls between other people and us are dangerous. They keep people out, and we stand alert, waiting for an attack. This defensive stance leads to imagined offenses—on our part for wondering what we did wrong and for interpreting another person’s actions and words through the lens of “they’re out to get me.”

Jesus is our great example in so many ways. One of the areas where we can learn the most is his demonstration of humility and meekness. Humility is not thinking of ourselves in a high or debased way. It is understanding that our strengths and gifts come from God, and we owe all of them to him. Humility allows us to assert that we are the object of undeserved redeeming love, and without God, we have nothing. We are not our own, but God’s through Jesus Christ. This is having the mindset of Christ.

When we view other people through this humble lens, our defenses lower, and our worries about offenses cease. We’re able to lay aside the worst-case imaginations of “What did I do wrong?” and “Why do they react to me that way?” This mindset allows us to consider others better than ourselves because we’re secure in who we are in Christ. We’re able to lay aside the petty selfishness that grows from self-protection and choose to serve one another with a generous heart.

Jesus served the people around him. He taught his disciples, he healed many, and he brought people to life. His final emptying came when he allowed himself to be beaten and hung on a cross to die. He stayed silent when the court flung accusations against him. He refused to play Herod’s game when Herod demanded signs to prove who he was. All for you and for me.

In Jesus’ own words, he said, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13, NIV). We can live this example when we put someone’s needs or wants before our own. Love inconveniences itself. Serving others and having the mindset of Christ means we will experience disruptions where we can practice servanthood. It will mean that we think the best of others instead of the worst.

The mindset of Christ helps us lay aside our worst-case scenarios and view other people through the lens of humility so we can discover the power of God at work in them and us.

Let’s pray:

Holy God,
Without you, I have nothing, but with you, I have everything. Help me lay aside my selfish ambitions and the vain conceit that sets me up as defensive toward others. I want to have your attitude and mind. Help to serve others with gladness and joy, knowing that as I do so, I am reflecting your mindset to the people around me. When I’m inconvenienced by a request, help me to rejoice that I get to serve. When I struggle with selfishness, help me surrender to the refinement that comes when I say “yes” to the work you’re doing in me and through me.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen