Heart over Hammer

Psalm 40: 6-8

“⁶ You take no delight in sacrifices or offerings.
    Now that you have made me listen, I finally understand^[a]—
    you don’t require burnt offerings or sin offerings.
⁷ Then I said, “Look, I have come.
    As is written about me in the Scriptures:
⁸ I take joy in doing your will, my God,
    for your instructions are written on my heart.”

We have all heard the story of John Henry. I am singing the song right now. That whole story hinges on one point, John Henry’s heart. Sure, he was a huge mountain of a man with extraordinary strength, but what separated him was his heart. In the story, he beats the machine and goes down in history as a giant of a man with super strength, but if there were a plaque at the bottom of his statue, it would have read, “John Henry, a man with a huge heart.”

We can all sacrifice our time and our attention in many different ways, but putting our heart into it is something different. In Psalm 40 we read how David figured this out. We read that God does not desire sacrifice or offerings or even a sin offering, if you can imagine that. He wants our hearts.

All those are outward signs of devotion we have all heard before. He wants your desire to be an inward devotion that is lived out because you have written the laws of the Lord on your heart. When John Henry was falling behind in the race to get through the mountain, no one could see him, he was alone. No amount of crowd cheering was going to do any good, he could not hear them. He also could not see anyone either. All he knew was that he must press on. His heart devotion was really tested at that moment.

Your devotion to the Lord won’t be tested when things are great, it will be tested when you find yourself between a rock and a hard place. It is in these situations that we find our real devotion and where it lies. We will all be in these types of places, and no one can escape them, they are a part of life (Matthew 5:45). It is almost like God is setting little testing grounds along our path, and if we put our faith and trust in Him, He sets another test, a little bit tougher than the last one. We will look back and see all the Lord has done in our lives and how He has brought us through every good and dark time. Pray what David prayed, “Here I am, I have come, I desire to do your will, put your law on my heart.”

Prayer: I pray that we desire to do your will, Father. I pray that we cast aside all that entangles us along the way. I pray that our hearts will be covered with your instructions. In Jesus’ name, amen.