Heart Posture: what is it? It’s something I’ve been struggling to get a grasp on recently, and how it influences our lives in the way we go about things.
Heart Posture is an internal body language that reveals the position of my heart during certain situations. Is my heart looking to give myself the glory? Or is it aligned with Jesus’s heart and wanting to give him all the glory?
To give you a realistic perspective on what this may look like, I’m going to share two stories: one where my heart was aligned, and one where it was unaligned with the Father‘s heart.
The first week in Louisiana I was really asking Jesus to give me a chance to minister to someone.
He delivered.
We pulled up to a job with a mom and her two sons who were living out of their car, because hurricane Delta hit them. One of the first things I prayed was,
“Jesus, give me a way to present the gospel to this family.’’
Then, He told me this: “Be there with them.”
So that is what I did all morning. I really focused on getting to know the family. I did this by taking time to play with her sons, asking them questions, and loving on them in the hope to show them what Jesus would look like.
As lunch came around, I decided to sit outside the truck and listen to the homeowner talk to the Leaders of our group.
As we were listening to her, an opportunity arose where I got to share what Jesus has done in my life and why he’s my savior. I was led to share a bit of my testimony, as well as the story of the prodigal son: The story begins with a son who asked for his share of his Father’s inheritance because he was unsatisfied with what he was given. The son wanted to live like the world so he left. After living a life of shame, guilt, and pain, he decided to go back home to His Father, and when his Dad saw him from a distance He didn’t wait for his son to reach him but He ran and embraced him with hugs and kisses. Showing him Grace and inviting Him right back in the family.
It was such an amazing experience to be able to see her walls come crashing down as Jesus began to reveal Himself to her. I ended up getting to pray for her, and she prayed as well. In her prayer she confessed some things from her past and ended up rededicating her life to Jesus… Man God’s Good!
Now, flash forward to the second week. We showed up to a house that needed a lot of work. The Homeowner was an older guy, and I didn’t feel much of a call to talk with him right then. Many others did, so I went about my time more focused on serving him by fixing up his house
Throughout the day, I had a few conversations here and there, nothing too deep, just trying to build a relationship. Later on in the day, a Chaplain (which is a group of people who work for a Samaritan purse who’s job is to meet with the homeowners and share the gospel.) showed up and I asked if I could sit in with them and see how they evangelize.
Afterwards they asked me if I would like to present the bible to him, and try to share the gospel. I gladly said yes.
Leading up to that time, I was in prayer hoping that God would move in his heart. But, even though the subject of my desire was good, I think my heart posture shifted in me. I wanted him to find Jesus more for my glory, then for God’s. In a way I wanted him to be saved so I could tell people what I did through Jesus.
My heart posture was not intending to give any glory to God. So when the time came to share, it did not go well. The man completely denied me and I ended up being very embarrassed and quite humiliated. I was very confused on why it went down the way it did. I didn’t realize at the time that it was because my heart wasn’t aligned with God’s.
Later that night, I learned that my teammates Brandon and Nick got to pray and minister to him and help plant that seed that I so desperately wanted to plan myself. This past week, we received a call from Samaritan’s Purse Leadership telling us that he accepted Jesus into his heart and is now walking with the Father!
Man, how cool is it that even in our own failures God is still moving and ready to work through everybody? He recognizes when my heart isn’t in the right place, so he uses the people around me to present the Gospel instead.
What’s crazy is that I fully believed that if my heart posture was aligned with the Father and if I wasn’t out for my own agenda God would have used me to minister him.
I challenge you now to ask God how you can better align your heart with His. So, when the opportunity arises, you are ready to be a vessel and allow the Holy Spirit to use you so that you can give all the Glory to Jesus.
i love the authenticity of this so much. keep aligning your heart with the Fathers in the good & the bad :))
“Man, how cool is it that even in our own failures God is still moving and ready to work through everybody?” Dangggg this is good Cole!! Thanks for sharing these two stories with us. I love what you’re learning about heart posture! Keep it up!
You are learning so much! It’s so awesome to see. Praying you’ll continue to press in and go higher. Love you.
Cole, Like David in Psalm 139: 23-24, I try to regularly ask God to search my heart, test my motives. It’s hard to maintain life and service to Him and keep the right heart posture 100% of the time. I’m grateful for His grace, His forgiveness, His second chances, that He never gives up on me. Thanks for the reminder.
~Katie Chandler (Nathan’s Mama)