Where is He in YOUR heart?

I lead a small group of high-school students in a weekly home bible study, and we've been going verse-by-verse through the Book of Revelation. This week, in preparation to discuss Jesus' letter to the church at Ephesus (Rev 2:1-7), I came across a little "self-check" about whether Jesus is the first love in your heart. I was very convicted by this, because it reminded me of how much growing in the Lord I still have to do. I thought I would post it here, in hopes that you might also see yourself in it, and move Jesus to His rightful place in your life. I recognized far too much of myself in the second list than the first, (Praise God, much less than when I first began walking with Him!) and that recognition brought me to confront these obstacles to my closer walk with Him. I pray that each of you who sees a glimmer of yourself here would feel the presence of the Holy Spirit in your heart as He guides you to a better and closer relationship with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. May His blessings be with you all. Amen.

If Jesus is First in Your Heart:

1. You love to pray. Daily ( or hourly, or continual) prayer is the privilege of believers, who have an opportunity to converse one-on-one with their God, and deepen their relationship with Him. Your prayers revolve around thanking Him, blessing Him, and just spending time talking with Him.
   
2. You love to praise God; you try to get to church early so you won't miss the first song. You sing and praise honestly and with joy, and carry that song of praise with you through the day and through the week.
3. You love to read and study your bible, to get into God's Word and get His Word into you. A day without at least some bible reading leaves you feeling the void and off-balance.
4. You find deep personal satisfaction in being obedient. If you read something in Scripture or hear a teaching that points out an area of sin in your life, you immediately feel convicted, repent, and pray to God for forgiveness, and for His strength to overcome this difficulty.
5. You go through the ups and downs of life in contentment: "OK, God, I just lost my job, but I know You have a plan for me, and everything will be fine, I trust in You." You aren't oblivious or foolishly careless, but you know there is no need to worry or panic, because He is in control. Besides, (more to the point), you have already been saved from eternal separation and torment, and promised everlasting life in the Kingdom, so anything else good that comes along is just gravy, right?
6. You have a fire in your heart to tell others about Jesus. We call this evangelism, but all it really is is the simple inability to talk for very long without talking about the One you love. (Anyone who has ever found themselves going on and on about a spouse/girlfriend/etc. will understand what I mean!) You have a relationship that far outweighs in significance anything else you have ever known, and so you cannot resist wanting others to know all about Him.

If Jesus is NOT First in You Heart:

1. Prayer is not a big priority for you. In fact, you rarely pray at all; not even the "SOS" prayers which many people send up from time to time, because you are SO unused to talking with God, you're not really sure He's even listening.
2. Praise just doesn't "do it" for you: the songs are boring or unfamiliar; you only sing because people will look at you if you don't; sometimes you deliberately arrive late to avoid the music and "get to the important part ." Besides, God knows you love Him. He doesn't really want to hear you singing flat and off-key, does He?
3. You don't read your bible every day; in fact, you're not really sure exactly where it is right now, are you? And when you find it, it's got a pretty good coat of dust on it. Well, as long as you have a bible when you need one (!?!), you're ok, aren't you?
4. Being obedient isn't your way of doing things, especially since you aren't reading enough to know what God expects of you in the first place. Your plan is basically to get away with everything you can (and still call yourself a "Christian"), and depend on God's grace and forgiveness to make it all right in the end.
5. There is very little contentment in your life. You zoom along on life's roller coaster, worrying about how you're going to make it, blaming God for letting you get into this mess (again!), and complaining about the unfairness of it all. You can't remember the last time you were really happy.
6. You just aren't comfortable talking to people about Jesus. I mean, sure, you know you're supposed to "make disciples of all the nations", but...the moment is never right...or you hate to argue with people...or you don't know where to start...and besides, other people are much better at that sort of thing, so let them do it; God will understand, won't He? Instead of a fire in your heart, there's a tiny, flickering flame, and you're afraid if you stir things up too much, it might get blown out.