Wholehearted: The Kind of Heart God Cannot Ignore

ECHOES OF TRUTH

THEME: GETTING SET FOR THE SHOWERS

JUNE 2ND: WHOLEHEARTED: THE KIND OF HEART GOD CANNOT IGNORE

 

“A man who seeks God with fifty percent of his heart is just playing a religious game. God only answers when the percentage reaches one hundred.” – The BUD Family Africa

 

Have you ever stopped to wonder at the story of the persistent widow who would not let the corrupt judge have peace of mind?

 

Luke 18: 1-8 tells us the story.

 

Jesus highlights that the parable is to teach us to always pray and not faint. 

 

However, what if we ask why did she not go to another judge if this one was not responsive?

 

How many days did she continually seek the judge till he yielded to her?

 

For how many hours did she keep knocking at his door, or sit at his gate, or stand by his window tendering her requests? 

 

Did she practically pitch her tent at his court house and ran to him each time he passed by?

 

Was she always submitting petition letters, daily, only to find the one from the previous day in the trash?

 

Simply put, how persistent was she till she finally got exactly what she was asking for?

 

Many times we have found ourselves seeking God for one or many things at a time yet have unanswered requests solely because our hearts were not built on persistence in pursuit from the very onset.

 

Persistence in prayer, in tarrying, in waiting, in the Word, in faith, to receive from God is either all chips in before God or none at all.

 

God will only go all out for the one who is equally ready to go all in with Him. This is exactly where we often fail. We are not wholehearted!

 

We seek God, yet, with a divided heart. Many things are crowding our hearts and demanding our attention away from God. We are consumed with many things hence cannot give God the utmost priority in our lives.

 

Like Jesus told Martha, she was concerned with many things but not the Jesus who sat right in front of her!!

 

She was everywhere at the same time but not in the presence of the One who mattered the most.

 

She had access to God directly but would rather give herself to fleeting matters that would pass as quickly as they came. She was missing on the only one thing important which Mary saw and chose.

 

Similarly, we confess that God is the only option we shall run to for all our life’s issues but we are as calculative as the serpent who deceived Eve. We want God’s hands but we are unwilling to show Him ours because they are busy attending to many other things. 

 

We tell God one thing with our lips but we forget that He sees our hearts and nothing is hidden before His eyes. 

 

A few persons recorded in the Gospels who received bountifully from Jesus were people who saw Jesus, went to Him, and submitted their all before Him. They were simply at His mercy and they let Him know that. Jesus saw beyond their words and saw their hearts. There were no deceits in them. They were before Him in sincerity and had nothing besides Him as their only hope. 

 

To the Canaanite woman with demon-possessed child, Jesus said, ‘Woman, your faith is great! Let it be done for you as you want’ (Matthew 15:28).

 

Jesus saw in her the persistency that He could not resist.

 

To the four friends who went as far as breaking someone else’s roof, Jesus saw their faith, forgave their sick friend, and healed him of his paralysis. He got both physical and spiritual healing. 

 

God will only acknowledge the one who diligently seeks Him with all their heart. The one who pursues in a wholehearted way.

 

In Jeremiah 29:13-14a, God said He will be found by the one who looks for Him wholeheartedly. Not one who is busy playing religion, busy with what is trending, concerned with only selfish gains, worried about life’s issues, full of complaints, steadily grumbling, lacks faith, and is self-confident. 

 

The one who seeks God wholeheartedly submits to Him in humility and recognises that in Him alone she lives, she moves, and has her being. Such a person knows that by her strength she cannot prevail, she can do nothing without Him. She submits to His sovereign authority as Lord and trusts that if she leaves all in His care, therein she finds safety. 

 

As we prepare for Juicy July, this is the posture we must begin to take. We must withdraw our hearts from every other thing drawing our hearts away from looking solely at our Lord. We must start renewing our commitments to the Lord, setting away the various idols in our hearts.

 

We cannot say we are dining with the Lord and are still dipping our hands in uncleanliness and unrighteous living. We cannot say we belong to Christ but the evidence of His Person is not in us. 

 

Also read: HOW TO GET THE MOST OUT OF A FASTING AND PRAYER PROGRAMME

 

If July will be juicy, we must begin to align with God appropriately, wholeheartedly, completely. We must start to rid our hearts of anything hindering our persistent pursuit of God. We must do away with all that is drawing our hearts away from sincere devotion to Christ. We must say no to anything that bears no semblance with Christ nor aligns with the Truth of the Scriptures. 

 

Juicy July is that time of the year in the BUD Family Africa where we persist in God’s Presence. It is that time we raise our hearts and voices before God’s throne of grace to obtain mercy and grace for the time of need. We cannot afford to jeopardise heaven’s storeroom’s gates set opened before us with unclean hands and impure hearts. We must choose right beginning from this very moment by making our ways right before the Lord. 

 

If Juicy July 2026 will be different than every other one you have experienced or will be remarkable as a first timer, first settle the state of your heart with God. Let it not be out of religious routine but from the place of desperation and urgency to be made right with God, to have the accuser have nothing against you before God and before men. It should be to capture God’s attention and heaven’s surveillance and recognition ahead of July. 

 

You may read this short article on: The Value of Persistence by Zac Poonen