Focus 40: Day 7

Prayer Makes a Difference 


“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand…And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. —Ephesians 6:12–13, 18


Years ago before the formal focus on the 360 Revolution concept, I used to pray for those around me who didn’t know Jesus. The 360 Revolution focuses on looking 360 degrees around you to see where God is at work and to get involved, praying for at least three persons six times a week who don’t know Jesus and missing zero opportunities to share God’s love.  


One of my ministry fields was the gym. I used to compete as a power lifter and was in the weight room most days of the week. I would write down on my prayer list some of the guys I saw regularly and had interaction with and would pray for them regularly. What I found is that when I prayed for them to find Jesus and for the opportunity to share Jesus’ love with them, some incredible things happened. I remember I had been praying, and there was a guy over at the dumbbells working out. He said something to me that gave this huge opening to talk about spiritual things. It was just crazy how it happened, and I believe without regular prayer on my part, it would have never happened. God did some incredible things in that place. People came to find Jesus; others who had been walking away from him came back and God did an incredible work. A men’s accountability/Bible study group started at Cracker Barrel, and before you know it, we had to go to more groups because it got too large. I believe without a doubt, if there hadn’t been consistent prayer, it would have never happened.  


The Bible says that we are in a spiritual battle. Paul said, “Put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand…And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints” (Eph 6:12–13, 18). We need the weapon of prayer. 


For us to see lives changed, I challenge you, no, better yet, I dare you to try to pray six days a week for three people who don’t know Jesus. Pray that you would have a chance to share God’s love. You will be amazed at what God does. I double dare you!  


Don’t be discouraged if nothing happens immediately. Sometimes it is the faithful prayers over years that bring someone to Jesus. I prayed for over two years for a guy who was against any spiritual conversations. Finally, God opened up a window and, well that’s another story for another day.


Lord, I want to be part of the 360 Revolution, looking 360 degrees around me for the three people who don’t know you, those you want me to pray for 6 times a week, missing 0 opportunities to share your love with them. As I stand in the gap in prayer for them, Lord, please go before me to prepare their hearts to receive your awesome love and life-transforming power. May they never be the same because they have met you in all of your healing love and grace. Thanks, Lord, for letting me be involved in your plan of transforming hearts…transforming lives. Amen.


 Dr. Andy Stephenson, Leader of Youth and Family Ministries, Church of God Ministries

Focus 40: Day 6

Distractions from Communicating Freely with God 


“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed.” —Luke 10:41‒42a.


I was visiting a home in a South Carolina mill town when the conversation turned to prayer. In the course of our discussion, I confessed that I sometimes let daily concerns distract me from communicating freely with God.  


“I know what you mean,” the lady of the house said. “It was so difficult for me to pray while I was having financial troubles a few months ago. I worried so much, my prayers didn’t seem to go higher than the ceiling.  


“I couldn’t sleep one night because of it. I paced the floor and cried out to God, but still I could get no sense of peace about my situation. So I went outside and climbed up the ladder that a roofing crew had left there in the middle of a repair job, just to sit on the roof and pray. I said, ‘Lord, I don’t want anything to come between us—not even this roof.’ Right away, I felt God’s peace settle over me and I knew I would be all right.”  


The roof wasn’t the obstacle, of course. Preoccupation with her financial needs (including the roof repair) was. So when she put herself physically in a posture that disregarded all of those concerns, she was able to converse with God freely again.  


I don’t recommend that you climb up on the roof in the middle of the night. But see if you can put yourself in a posture that disregards everything distracting you from God so that you can talk freely with him and he with you.


Lord, I don’t want anything to distract me from You, not even this ________________. The one thing I really need is my relationship with you. Amen! 


 Joe Allison, Coordinator, Publishing and Creative Services for Church of God Ministries, Inc.; CGM Liaison, Transformation Team Connect/Refresh

Focus 40: Day 5

Soaring from Incorrigible Defeat to Incredible Praise! 


If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! —2 Corinthians 5:17


Sienna came into my office and crumpled dejectedly into the chair across from my desk. With tears streaming from her eyes, she said, “Pastor Sam, I want out of my marriage. Shawn and I were married sixteen years ago. When we started dating, I was on a rebound from a broken relationship. I discovered I was pregnant, and even though we didn’t really have any feelings of true love for each other, we decided to marry for the sake of the baby. There has never been any real love in our marriage. Now, Shawn is drinking too much. He’s becoming verbally abusive, and I’m tired of putting up with him.” Her words, “I just want out!” reverberated through sobs and tears. My “Daddy heart” wanted to give her comfort, and say, “It’s OK. You’ve given the relationship sixteen years; it’s not getting any better, so it’s all right to get out.” But I closed my eyes and silently prayed for wisdom, and both Sienna and I were shocked at the words that tumbled out of my mouth. I said, “Sienna, our Lord
Jesus Christ can give you and Shawn a love for each other that you’ve never had. He can heal your marriage and give you a Christian home like you’ve never dreamed!” I’ll never forget Sienna’s reaction as long as I live. She jumped up. I thought she was coming to hug me for my words of wisdom. But she screamed at me, “That’s not what I wanted to hear from you!” She ran out into the hall, slammed the door, and left. It was so loud that my secretary ran up the stairs to see if I was OK! And I thought, through tears, “Well, Sam, you really helped her a lot, didn’t you! You’ll probably never see her again!” 


But I did! Shawn and Sienna were out of church for several weeks; they showed up one Sunday morning. Sienna asked if she could talk with me. I hoped things were better. But it was a repeat performance: “I want out …“Jesus can put new love in your hearts!”…Scream: “That’s not what I wanted to hear!”…Gone! That scene repeated itself several times in the next year. I began to believe it was a hopeless relationship. Shawn and Sienna were bound by incorrigible defeat. Months later, I was directing our choir in the musical Living Witnesses. In preparation for the song There’s Life in Jesus’ Name, the instructions said to have a testimony of the transforming power of God in someone’s life. No one but I knew who it would be.  Sienna walked to the microphone. She told the whole story of her and Shawn’s brokenness, her
visits with me, the advice I gave her, her screams at me; running out on me, the counseling they received, prayers of family and friends for their reconciliation. She looked down at Shawn, and said, through teary eyes, “Shawn, I want to tell you today in front of all our friends that I love you with
the love Jesus placed in my heart for you—a love we never had in all the years of our marriage!” She thanked the congregation and me for our prayers and support. As they embraced in the aisle, everyone stood up and erupted into spontaneous praise and applause. The choir exploded into singing There’s Life in Jesus’ Name! And we all knew there was joy in heaven that day as Shawn and Sienna went soaring from incorrigible defeat to incredible praise! 


The same God who healed, restored, and refreshed Shawn and Sienna can take you and your loved ones soaring from incorrigible defeat to incredible praise! new creations! Transforming hearts…transforming lives!


Thanks, Lord, for the awesome power of love, prayer, listening, and the Word to transform hearts…transform lives! For making everything fresh and new in Christ!


 Dr. Sam Bruce, President, Sam & Sandie Bruce Ministries; Pastor, Hope Point Church, Pearl, Mississippi; Online Instructor, Mid-America Christian University, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Focus 40: Second Sunday's Message

February 26, 2012

Luke 15:3-10

So he told them this parable: “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices.  And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’  Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. “Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?  When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’  Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Finding…

It feels great to find things.  Nothing can throw us into a panic quicker than losing something important.  Consider that lost wallet or those lost earrings.  We will spend hours retracing steps and looking everywhere until that important item is recovered.  This parable uses the “lost” and “found” terminology to describe God’s love and care for us.  God is searching for His people…the ones who have gone astray and who have been lost.  These people are described as sinners or people who have turned away from God.  God’s search is not a physical one.  God knows where we are.  God’s search is for a change of heart in the life of people He loves.  When even one sinner returns or is found there is great rejoicing and great joy.  The lost child has returned home.  This same idea of finding shows up in our lives as well.  Many of us spend our lives searching.  Just as God is searching for us so our heart is searching for the Lord.  Finding God is a wakeup call.  It opens our eyes so that we can see our lives, other people, and the whole world more clearly.  Today maybe you need to be found.  Maybe you need to find God.  Search for Him today.

Focus 40: Day 4

Fasting from Study…Yet This I Call to Mind 


Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope. —Lamentations 3:21


Dr. Ann Smith shouted a greeting as she walked through our offices a few days ago. She was carrying a cane but scarcely seemed to use it, so I commented on how well she appeared to be recovering from hip surgery. She confirmed this and said she was enjoying a new book I had sent her. “That was the strangest thing about being laid up after the surgery,” she said. “I wasn’t able to read anything. For the first time I can recall, I had no desire to read. I just wanted to concentrate on healing.” She smiled and added, “Even so, the Lord brought to mind so many things I’d read before. I had time to reflect on them during my convalescence, so I didn’t feel deprived at all.” Ann Smith is such an eager student that it’s hard to imagine her not reading for any extended period of time. (Obviously, she was perplexed by it too.) Yet God used that time of “fasting” from study to deepen her relationship with him. He called to her mind resources she had already accumulated.


The writer of Lamentations shared a similar testimony from the Exile: “Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his  compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, ‘The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.’ The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD” (Lam 3:21–26).


Lord, when we are deprived of things that normally sustain us, we trust you to sustain us. Call to mind your faithful provisions of the past, and help us to wait patiently for the future you are preparing. Amen!


 Joe Allison, Coordinator, Publishing and Creative Services for Church of God Ministries, Inc.; CGM Liaison, Transformation Team Connect/Refresh

Focus 40: Day 3

Christ Followers: Sequenced by Jesus! 


When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. —Acts 4:13


You know, there’s just something attractive, captivating, and fascinating about a true Christ Follower. People notice something different – life-transforming – about a Christ Follower. Peter and John were recognized as Christ-followers; Acts says that the people around them “took note that
these men had been with Jesus.” With means to be in close association with a person; to participate in what he is and does—to transfer or sequence that person’s qualities to other people. It’s more than being physically present with a person; it’s being transformed by taking on his/her characteristics. With means a particular order in which related things follow each other 


We have a sequencer, a digital recorder that you can play a midi keyboard into, and it records (sequences) whatever we play, every note, piano, strings, trumpets, drums. When you play it back, there’s no doubt that it’s your recording. If you heard the live and recorded versions, you couldn’t tell the difference. That is what Christ Followers are: we live so closely to Jesus that his thoughts,  attitudes, motives, desires, and actions are played back or sequenced through us. When Jesus was  ready to select his apostles, to whom he would entrust the planting of his church that would grow  and thrive throughout time to bring people to him, Mark says, “Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve—designating them apostles—that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons” (Mark 3:13–15). They were with him so they could participate in his
plans; He could sequence into them his God-breathed Word, unconditional love, goals of evangelism and disciple-making, life-transforming power, and unending resources to fulfill his plans.—his presence transforms who I am. The fact that Peter and John had been with Jesus made them so  confident, so sure of themselves, that there was no question that they were related to him; his character was sequenced into their lives—Christ-followers!


When the people saw their courage, they couldn’t take their eyes off them standing there so  confident, so sure! They were astonished and took note that these men had been with Jesus. When people meet us, are they astonished and do they take note that we have been with Jesus? Do they see 
us as sequencers, channels of his God-breathed Word, unconditional love, goals of evangelism and disciple-making, life-transforming power, and unending resources to fulfill his plans? 


I’ll never forget that night. A group of men who met weekly for Monday Night Football at the Trail’s End Saloon, on a ranch just outside town, said, “Sam, we invited you here because there’s something different about you, and we want to know what it is. You don’t push us; you just live it, and we know you care about us; we want you to help us understand more about it.” In the coming years, around the campfire, with plates full of hickory-fired steak and sausage, God sequenced his love and life-changing power through me to a group of men who noticed that I had been with Jesus. This is not about me; it’s about Christ in and through me. Transforming Hearts…Transforming Lives!


Lord, I want to be with you like that. Use me as your sequencer to transfer your God-breathed Word, unconditional love, goals of evangelism and disciple-making, life-transforming power, and unending resources to all you 
bring across my path. Thanks. Amen.


 Dr. Sam Bruce, President, Sam & Sandie Bruce Ministries; Pastor, Hope Point Church, Pearl, Mississippi; 
Online Instructor, Mid-America Christian University, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
                                                

Focus 40: Day 2

The Fight He Couldn’t Win


For we live by believing and not by seeing. —2 Corinthians 5:7 NLT


Elvie was a new Christian and a mother of two young children. Her husband Dick was a former Golden Glove boxing champion, and he liked to go out drinking on the weekends with his friends. Often, Dick and his friends would get involved in fights at the local bar. Elvie knew there was little hope that she would be able to remain faithful in her walk with the Lord unless her husband also got saved. For several months, Elvie prayed and prayed for Dick with no effect. She went to the altar at every church service. The congregation became so concerned for her that they also began to pray
fervently for Dick. Even during the offering prayer, someone prayed that Dick would to come to know Jesus as his Savior. Months went by; nothing seemed to change. One Sunday morning, Elvie felt that the Lord was calling her to do more than pray. She didn’t know much about fasting, but she knew that it said in the Bible that people often used fasting in addition to prayer. Elvie felt like God wanted her to fast for three days for Dick’s salvation. She decided she would try it and see what would happen. She asked her sister and her sister-in-law to support her in prayer during her fast.


Dick was the last person Elvie wanted to know that she was fasting, because she knew he would do everything he could think of to stop her. When dinner time came, Dick immediately sensed Elvie was up to something. He insisted that he was not going to eat any dinner unless Elvie ate something first. When Dick continued to insist, Elvie explained to him that she was fasting. Dick’s immediate reply was, “I’m not getting saved and you can’t make me.” 
The week went on, and Elvie prepared meals for her husband and the children, but she didn’t break her own fast. Often, she would wait until Dick got involved in watching something on television, and then Elvie would sneak off down the hall to the bathroom to pray. Every single time, Dick would follow her and stand outside the bathroom door. “I can hear you in there praying,” he said, “and I want you to stop it right n ow.” Elvie told Dick that she needed to pray, and he couldn’t stop her from doing it. After the third day, she felt like the Lord had released her from her obligation. There still seemed to be no change in Dick. He continued to insist that he wasn’t getting saved, he didn’t need to be saved, didn’t want to be saved, and nobody was going to make him.


Friday night came, as he normally did, Dick went out to the bar with his friends. At 1:30 AM, Dick could no longer resist the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, and he rushed out of the bar and drove home as fast as he could so that Elvie could pray with him and he could get saved. He didn’t make it all the way into the house; he fell down on his face in the front yard and gave his heart to Christ. 


Often, when we have been praying for a deep soul burden for a very long time, it is easy for us to give in to negative thoughts about why God has not answered our prayer in the way or the time we think is right. We think God is angry or displeased with us or that he has not heard our sincere prayers. Other times, we try to help God along by attempting to create our own answers. We intervene in situations, speak out of turn, and make matters worse instead of better. When we remember that God works in his own perfect timing and in his own perfect way, we can be encouraged to continue to pray and fast for His perfect will to be done in every situation. Prayer and
fasting can prepare us to be more in tune with the Holy Spirit as we pray for lives to be transformed and hearts to be changed.


Father, help us to remember that when we have prayed for a long time for something to change, the fact that there seems to be no effect does not mean you are not working on our behalf to transform the hearts of those we love the most. Help us to keep in mind that we walk by faith, not by sight. Amen.


 Rev. Mary Nichols, Associate Pasto r, Green Valley Church of God, St. Albans, West Virginia

Focus 40: Day 1

Transformed: From Edging God Out to Inviting God In! 


If a man is in Christ he becomes a new person altogether - the past is finished and gone, everything has become fresh and new. All this is God’s doing, for he has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ; and he has made us agents of the reconciliation. —2 Corinthians 5:17–19 (Phillips)


Al, a friend of mine and a dynamic Christian high school science teacher, gave me an acrostic for the word ego, which graphically describes the results of refusing to worship God as the center of our lives. He said that EGO is Edging God Out. When the self is at the center of a life, there is no room for God. When God is edged out of a person’s life, there is no place for worship, thus our spiritual formation is checkmated.


The ego-centered lifestyle is the path to absolute defeat, utter frustration, total disappointment, complete havoc in a person’s life. Al was the perfect example of Edging God Out. Every time I think about Al, I remember that when I first met him he was an atheist and an evolutionist high school
science teacher. I didn’t like him because he kept trying to pull our high school band director away from God and church. Then, all of a sudden, I didn’t see him again for more than ten years. He and his wife Abby showed up in our church on a Sunday morning. When I first saw him come in, a terrible thought ran across my mind, “What’s he doing here?!” After the service, Al said, “Pastor Sam, do you remember me?” “Oh, yes, I sure do…!” I responded, as my thoughts ran wild for a moment, but they were interrupted when he said, “Do you remember, back in 1972 when you had The New Philharmonic Christian Rock Band here at the church?” I said, “Yes, I do. We had over
six hundred kids here that night, and probably half of them came forward to accept Christ into their lives.” Al continued, “I was here that night, too; I was invited by Mike, the high school band director, who played trombone with the band.” I wasn’t prepared for his next words: “I too came forward that night and accepted Jesus into my life as Savior and Lord, and I changed from being an atheist and evolutionist to becoming a Christian and creationist!”


Al was drafted into the U. S. Army and was sent to the war in Viet Nam. After he got out of the army, he and Abby lived in Southern California for a while, and they had just moved back to Madera, where he got his old science teacher job back; but now he was teaching kids about the Creator God! He became an integral part of our congregation and our dynamic Men’s Ministries.
One morning, at our men’s weekly breakfast Bible study, he gave his testimony and shared the EGO acrostic with us. He had moved from being a critic of God-stuff to being a proclaimer of the lifetransforming power of God in Christ. He changed from edging God out to inviting God in! Talk about no longer being defined by the past! Al met the New Definer and received a new definition! Al became a new person altogether—the past is finished and gone; everything has become fresh and new. 


Now, that’s Transforming Hearts…Transforming Lives! Regarding The New Philharmonic Christian Rock Band, when Mike, the band director, and I set up that event, we also had them perform at the high school on Friday and announced to the them that the band would be at our church on Sunday. We had no idea what God had in mind, but we prayed that something awesome
would happen, and it did! Al came because he trusted Mike; he saw a new definition of Christianity in him and met the New Definer as his Savior!


Empower me, Lord, to always be a Christ-follower who reflects the new definition of Christianity so that others will meet you, the new definer as their Savior! Help me to be the kind of Christ-follower who brings people into
the presence of God and God into the experience of people. I’m yours! Amen.


 Dr. Sam Bruce, President, Sam & Sandie Bruce Ministries; Pastor, Hope Point Church, Pearl, Mississippi; Online Instructor, Mid-America Christian University, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Focus 40: First Sunday's Message

February 19, 2012

Acts 2:37-42

Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.” And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

Adding to the Number

Peter was a skilled preacher.  He spoke the truth.  He spoke from the heart.  He spoke in a way people could understand.  After hearing the Good News of Jesus people had a question... “What should we do?”.  This is a question even those of us who have been people of faith for a long time still have.  There is a sense that the Good News of Jesus calls people to action.  Jesus calls people to life change.  Peter is clear… “Repent and be baptized”.  Make a public life changing choice.  Enter into the work of the Holy Spirit.  God began His church one decision at a time.  Have you made yours?

The Good News is not just for one person.  It is a promise for all.  Notice how the promise expands.  It begins with “you”, moves to “your children”, includes all who are “far away” and ends with “everyone who God calls”.  It begins with “you”.  It begins with us.  It begins with me.  If we want the church to grow then we must follow the path God has prepared.  Each of us must devote ourselves to God and each other.  Then we will see the Holy Spirit add to our number.  Are we willing to do what it takes to follow God?

{Your Heart Here} Week 5

February 12, 2012

Acts 8:27-31

Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah.  Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.”  So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”  He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him.

A Heart that Shares Love

The Ethiopian was a strange man from a strange land.  He was not like everyone else.  He didn’t fit into the normal patterns of worship and life that people were used to.  He was an outsider.  Yet Philip went to him.  God prompted Philip to go to this man…the outsider.  How willing are we to go to the outsider with the message of God?  For us, the outsider is often the person who is not part of church, who behaves in a way that we don’t approve of, or who we can’t see how God could change their life.  We are surrounded by “outsiders” most of our day.  Often we say little about God or faith in the presence.

Philip went to the outsider.  He went where the outsider was.  He listened.  He spoke from his experience and his knowledge.  He told the Ethiopian the Good News of Christ and because of this the Ethiopian came to know the Lord.  Philip even baptized him.  The outsider went on his way rejoicing and the message of Christ spread.  The heart that serves God is a heart that shares the love of God for all people.  Who is the “outsider” you need to talk to this week?  

{Your Heart Here} Week 4

February 5, 2012

Mark 12:28-34

“Which commandment is the first of all?”  Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’  The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

A Focused Heart

Jesus knows the hearts of his people.  Because of this, Jesus knows where the attention of the heart should be directed for the greatest benefit of the person and all humanity.  A scribe came to Jesus and tried to trick him with a question.  The scripture above records the response.  The heart of all of God’s law and of all of God’s way can be summed it in the simple phrase “Love God and Love others”.  The scribe agreed with this.  It is a foundational truth of faith.  It is the central motivation for God’s people.  This is the place our heart is to be.  This is the place where our motivation is to be focused.  This is how we begin to live a holy life for Christ.

Yet this isn’t always how Christians and churches are defined.  We find it easy to get caught up in smaller issues, smaller problems, and smaller goals.  In doing so we hide our hearts in an effort to protect them or keep them to ourselves.  A heart given over to God is a heart that is exposed.  A person’s motivation is visible in their life and actions.  Who a person is and what they are about is not a mystery.  When we give our hearts to God we become vulnerable to his will, trusting that his will is best.  The hearts of people are beautiful.  They are meant to be seen.  How visible is your heart?  Is something hiding it?  Does it need refocused?