Whole Heart

When the Conquistador Cortez sailed to the new world to conquer new lands for Spain, he wanted to make sure that his men were fully committed to the campaign. There is a reason that when the Lord was first introducing the law of sacrifice that He commanded the offerings to be burnt. “No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62). We have to be all in with our sacrifices or they are worse than useless. We can’t just offer up half of our heart to the Lord. The Lord has a healthy new heart to give us in place of our old broken heart. He’s not going to mangle the new heart He has for us so He can try to suture it onto the half we were unwilling to give up to Him. Giving half-heartedly means we’re left with only half a heart and no room to receive the new, working heart. Better to keep the broken heart then cut out half of it for no gain. The Lord had His children start out with burnt offerings because you can’t change your mind later and take it back. It’s gone up to heaven in ash and smoke. The Lord could have lead the children of Israel around the Red Sea but he led them through it so there was no way of going back to the security of their slavery. We can see the dangers of half-hearted sacrifice in the story of Cain. He did not find favor with the Lord with his sacrifice because he was holding back. He was not willing to put his trust completely in the Lord, and so he did not allow Christ fully into his heart. For new growth to thrive, you have to first burn out all of the deadwood. Cain didn’t do this. He let the weeds and fallen trees in his heart fester and rot and then he grew resentful that God would allow him to persist in his misery, even though it was Cain who had all the power to sacrifice his old, broken heart fully, completely and burn it on the altar so that he could not take it back. It is hard to sacrifice our whole selves, but until we do, we cannot grow into the new self that Christ has prepared for us. When a caterpillar goes into a cocoon, it doesn’t do so just so it can have the privacy to grow its new wings and slim down a bit. It goes into the cocoon to dissolve completely. The caterpillar dies in the cocoon, so that the butterfly can fly. God doesn’t want us to be some misshapen caterpillar with wings. The caterpillar served its purpose but now it's time to become a butterfly. Our old heart kept us alive and safe and gave us some measure of peace and happiness, broken and weak as it was, but Christ has a brand new heart for us. But He can’t give it to us until we sacrifice our whole heart.