Christ in Our Hearts

A large part of being a successful Christian is dying daily to our flesh and renewing our strength to walk and live according to the Spirit of God.

Paul wrote in his letter to the Ephesians (recorded in chapter 3:16,17) a prayer which states in part his wish that God “would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith…”

Our ability to connect with the mind of Christ is through our faith in Jesus Christ. Ultimately our faith makes us Christians. It leads us after hearing, to water baptism. It convicts us of biblical truths and the Lordship of Christ Jesus. And undeniably, it fills our hearts with love.

With love in our hearts, we are able to accomplish all of the things God wants us to do. That’s because we come to know God better with Love and it’s because God is love. Without love, we cannot know God.

Throughout the scriptures, God is trying to convince us of his love for us so that ultimately we will go out and love others. Thus we accomplish the will of God, bringing people into the perfect knowledge of Jesus Christ who God gave to us as a perfect showing of love.

When we are not convinced that God loves us (by sending Christ to die for our sins), we withhold our love from others. We withhold our praise and our worship from God. It’s a revolt against God’s sovereign will and thus we sin against the Lord.

So when we lack love, we sin because we excuse the love of Christ which should dwell in us. Paul wrote to the churches in Colossi, encouraging them to ‘Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives’ (Col 3:16). That is how we truly allow Christ to fill our hearts and ultimately please God our father in heaven.