INFORMATION ABOUT THIS IMAGE OF GOD

What if Jesus for twenty-four hours got up from his bed, from yours, walked in his shoes, lived in his house, and followed his schedule? His boss would be his boss, his mother would be his mother, his pains would be his? With one exception, nothing in your life changes. Your health does not change. Your circumstances do not change. Your schedule is not altered. Your problems are not solved. Only one change happens.

What if, for a day and a night, Jesus lived his life with his heart? The heart that you have in your chest has the day off and your life is directed by the heart of Christ. His priorities govern his actions. His passions drive his decisions. The love of Christ directs his conduct.

How would it be? Would people notice any change? Your family, would you see something new? Your co-workers, would they perceive any difference? How about the less fortunate? Would you treat them the same way? How are your friends? Would they detect more joy? How about your enemies? Would they receive more mercy from the heart of Christ than from theirs?

And you? How would it feel? What would alter this transplant in your level of tension? In your changes of mood? In his temperamental outbursts? Would I sleep better? Would the sunset look different? Death? The taxes? Would I need less aspirin and sedatives? How about your reaction to delays in transit? (That hurts, right?) Would you still fear what you fear? Better yet, would he still do what he is doing?

Would you do what you have planned for the next twenty-four hours? Stop and think about your schedule. Obligations, appointments, departures, commitments. With Jesus seizing his heart, would he change anything?

Keep working on this for a moment. Adjust the lens of your imagination until you have a clear picture of Jesus guiding your life, then press the shutter and portray the image. What you see is what God wants. He wants you to think and act like Jesus Christ (See Philippians 2.5).

God's plan is nothing less than a new heart. If you were a car, God would want to control your engine. If it were a computer, God would control the programs and the hard drive. If it were an airplane, I would take a seat in the cockpit. But you are a person, so God wants to change your heart.

Paul says: "And be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man [which is to have a new heart], created according to God in righteousness and holiness of truth" (Ephesians 4: 23-24).

God wants you to be like Jesus. He wants me to have a heart like his.

I'm going to take a risk. It is dangerous to summarize grandiose truths in one statement, but I will try. If a sentence or two could capture God's desire for each one of us, I would say the following:

God loves him as he is, but refuses to leave him like that. He wants you to be like Jesus.

God loves you as you are. If you think your love for you would be stronger if your faith were stronger, you're wrong. If you think that your love would be deeper if your thoughts were deeper, you are wrong again. Do not confuse the love of God with the affection of the people. People's affection usually increases with performance and decreases with mistakes. But it is not like that with the love of God. God loves you exactly as you are. I quote my wife's favorite author:

The love of God never ceases. Never. Even when we despise him, we ignore him, we reject him, we despise him, we disobey him, he does not change. Our evil can not diminish his love. Our kindness can not increase it. Our faith does not win it as our foolishness does not hinder it. God does not love us less because we fail or more because we succeed.

The love of God never ceases.
God loves you just as you are, but refuses to leave it at that.

Let's say this example: When a girl about two years old used to take her to a park. One day she was playing on a mound of sand, and an ice cream vendor approached. His father bought him a treat, and when he turned to give it to the girl, he saw that his mouth was full of sand. Where her dad wanted to put something tasty she had put land.

Do I love her with her dirty mouth? Of course. Was she less a daughter because of her mouth full of sand? Of course not. Would her father leave her with the sand in her mouth? Not even in dreams. He loved her exactly as she was, but he refused to leave her as she was. He took her to a water tap and washed her mouth. Why? Because I loved her.

God does the same with us. It takes us to the source. "Spit the earth, honey," our Father urges us. «I have something better for you». This cleanses us of our filth: immorality, dishonesty, prejudice, bitterness, greed. We do not like to be cleaned; Sometimes we prefer the earth instead of the ice cream. "I can eat earth if I feel like it!" We proclaim and get angry. Which is true; we can. But if we do, we lose. God has a better offer. He wants us to be like Jesus.

Is not that good news? You are not stuck with your current personality. He is not condemned to the "grumpy kingdom." You are malleable. Even if you have worked every day of your life, you do not need to worry about the rest of your life. What if he was born an intolerant? It does not have to die being so.

Where do we get the idea that we can not change? Where do they come from such statements as: "It's my nature to worry," or "I've always been pessimistic. That's how I am », or« I have a bad temper. I can not help it »? Who says it? Would we say similar things about our body? "It's my nature to have a broken leg. I can not do anything to avoid it ».

Of course not. If our bodies work badly, we look for help. Should not we do the same with our hearts? Should not we seek help for our sour attitudes? Can not we ask for treatment for our outbursts of selfishness? Of course we can. Jesus can change our hearts. He wants us to have a heart like his.

Can you imagine a better offer?

THE HEART OF CHRIST

The heart of Jesus was pure. Thousands worshiped the Savior, however he was happy with a simple life. There were women who cared for him (Luke 8.1-3), but he was never accused of lustful thoughts; his own creation despised him, but he willingly forgave them even before they asked for mercy. Peter, who accompanied Jesus for three and a half years, describes him as "a lamb without spot and without contamination" (1 Peter 1.19). After spending the same time with Jesus, John concluded: "there is no sin in Him" ​​(1 John 3.5).

The heart of Jesus was peaceful. The disciples worried about the need to feed thousands, but Jesus did not. He thanked God for the problem. The disciples shouted out of fear of the storm, but Jesus did not. He was sleeping Peter drew his sword to face the soldiers, but Jesus did not. Jesus raised his hand to heal. His heart had peace.

When his disciples left him, did he get angry and go home? When Peter denied it, did Jesus lose his temper? When the soldiers spit in his face, did he spew fire on them? Do not even think about it. I had peace. He forgave them. He refused to let himself be carried away by revenge.

He also refused to let himself be carried away by anything other than his high calling. His heart was full of purposes. Most lives do not project themselves towards something in particular, and they achieve nothing. Jesus was projected towards a single goal: to save humanity from its sins. He was able to sum up his life with a phrase: "The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost" (Luke 19.10). Jesus concentrated so much on his task that he knew when he should have said: "My hour has not yet come" (John 2.4) and when: "It is finished" (John 19:30). But he did not focus on his goal to the point of being unpleasant.

Unlike. How pleasant were his thoughts! Children could not get away from Jesus. Jesus could find beauty in the lilies, joy in the adoration and possibilities in the problems. He could spend days with crowds of sick people and still feel compassion for them. He spent more than three decades wades through the mud and quagmire of our sin, and yet he saw enough beauty in us to die for our mistakes.

But the attribute that crowns Christ is this: his heart was spiritual. His thoughts reflected his intimate relationship with the Father. "I am in the Father, and the Father in me," he affirmed (John 14.11). His first recorded sermon begins with the words "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me" (Luke 4:18). He was "carried by the Spirit" (Matthew 4.1) and was "filled with the Holy Spirit" (Luke 4.1). From the desert "he returned in the power of the Spirit" (Luke 4.14).