A Perfect Heart And A Willing Mind

“And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.” (1 Chronicles 28:9). This verse shows an important difference between the mind and the heart. It is possible to serve with a perfect heart and yet still possess an imperfect mind. In fact, the Lord does not require a perfect mind, but only a willing mind. We can serve God with a willing mind and still have doubts. We can serve God with a willing mind even when not everything makes sense to us. We so often complicate things in our minds. We let our imaginations conjure up dystopian futures or nightmarish pasts. We can try to serve God with a perfect heart, feeling the need to do some small act of kindness for a loved one or a neighbor or even a complete stranger, and our mind might start to list all of the reasons why it will be too little too late, or it will offend them, or it will limit our options in the future. But if we just choose to serve with a willing mind, despite all of the imperfect chaos of guilt and shame and embarrassment and selfishness and laziness and pride and stubbornness, then we can still serve with that perfect heart. Our minds are never going to be perfect in this life, nor will our minds ever let us believe that we can be perfect in any way. But if we will just choose to be willing to let our crazy, imperfect minds be crazy and imperfect, and let our perfect hearts lead us towards perfection, then we will find God in all that we do. And He will receive our perfect hearts and our willing, imperfect minds with open arms. I know that if we love God with all of our heart, might and strength, then our heart is perfect, and we can do great and marvelous works for our Father in Heaven with a perfect heart, and a willing and imperfect mind.