The Bible tells us that Jotham did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. He built up the wall of Ophel, he built cities in the mountains of Judah and he went to war against his enemies and defeated them. The Bible tells us that Jotham became mighty because he prepared his ways before the Lord (2 Chronicles 27:1-6). All of these victories and accomplishments were because he had prepared his way before the Lord.
The idea of preparing our hearts for the Lord is something that we find throughout the Bible. The Lord told king Jehoshaphat that He had found good things in him because he had prepared his heart to seek the Lord.
Samuel told the people, “If you will return to the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and astoroth from among you and prepare your hearts and serve Him only and He will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines (1 Samuel 7:3). In these passages we find the preparing of the heart for the Lord, but just what does it mean to prepare our hearts for God?
Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians was that Christ may dwell in their hearts through faith (Ephesians 3:17). The Greek word that is translated “dwell” literally means “to settle down and to abide,” or to just settle down and make yourself at home. Paul is praying that Christ might be able to make Himself at home in their hearts.
Is Christ at home in your heart? Or is there a stiffness or formality, a sort of relationship with Him that brings a tension? Or is there a comfortable feeling of Him being at home in your heart? Preparing our hearts for the Lord is to have our hearts in such a condition that He would feel comfortable there.
If the Lord came to your house and sat down and looked around, would He feel at home? Would the Lord be comfortable with the pictures on the wall, the books on the shelf and the magazines on the table? As He turned on the TV, and went to your favorite channels, would He be comfortable with what you have been watching?
If the Lord went with you to the your state aerial applicators meeting or a NAAA meeting, would He be comfortable with how you act and what you say? If the Lord went with you to a local business in town, would He be pleased with how you treat the people that work there? And if you work at a business, would the Lord be comfortable with how you treat the customers?
Would the Lord be comfortable with your actions as He sat beside you at a football, basketball or baseball game? Would He be pleased with you as you drive to work or fly your plane?
The Lord told Ezekiel to dig a hole through a wall. As he dug he came to a doorway that led into a room that was filled with all types of pornographic pictures. The Lord then told Ezekiel that He had given him the opportunity of going into the minds of the leaders of the nation of Israel and that this is the kind of filth that is in their minds (Ezekiel 8:7-10). Would the Lord be comfortable with the pictures that you have on the walls of your imagination?
King David wrote, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24). At the beginning of that Psalm David confessed that he didn’t know himself as well as the Lord knew him. “Such knowledge is to great for me, I cannot attain it” (v.6). The knowledge of ourselves is something that we really don’t know. I know most of us think we know ourselves, but the Bible tells us different. Each of us should ask God, “Search me O God, put me through the test that You might reveal to me what You know about me, that I might be cleansed by the power of Your Spirit.”
In Psalm 51, after David had been faced with the guilt of his sin with Bathsheba, he asked God to have mercy upon him according to the multitude of His tender mercies. And as he prayed he said, “Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones You have crushed rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from Your presence or take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me” (Psalm 51:7-12).
How do we prepare our heart for the Lord? Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).
Whenever a thought comes into our mind that would make Jesus uncomfortable or would hinder our walk with the Lord, then we must bring those thoughts into captivity and unto the obedience of Jesus Christ. We must dismiss them and ask the Lord to take those thoughts out of our mind. Don’t even entertain them for a moment, but immediately let the Spirit of God cleanse them out of your mind.
David wrote, “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4). James wrote, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
What will be the result? The Lord will come and make Himself at home in your heart and He will help you to be all that He wants you to be.