Perfect Hearts And Willing Minds

1 Chronicles 28:9: 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.

Psalms 51:10: Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

Acts 15:8: And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them (the Gentiles) witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; (the Jews) 9 And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.

Perfect, clean and pure hearts are the work of God. David asked the Lord to do it and Peter said that God did it for both Gentiles and Jews. God does His heart-work when we receive Jesus into our hearts. But we too have some things to do. The Apostle Paul beseeched (pled with) his brethren (those in whom God had done His heart-work) to present their bodies to God, be not conformed to the world and be transformed by the renewing of their minds. We are responsible for those things.

Romans 12:1: I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Note too that it is only because of the mercies of God that we can have purified hearts, it is only by His mercy that we can present our bodies and minds to Him and it is only by His mercy that we can prove His perfect will.

Geneva Bible Notes on Romans 12:2:

(1) be not conformed to this world: (2) We do not take other men*s opinions or conduct as a rule for life, but that we wholly renounce this world, and set before us as our mark the will of God as is manifested and revealed to us in his word. This is the reason that there is no room left for (human) reason, which the heathen philosophers place as a queen in a castle, nor for man*s free will, which scholars dream of, because the mind must be renewed;

Spurgeon Devotional Commentary:

Mark well that the only way to escape being conformed to the world is to be transformed. The customs of society will lead us away unless the grace of God rules in us with divine power. We are set to prove to the world what the mind of God is: may we have grace to accomplish our mission.

Brethren NT Commentary:

*But be ye transformed.* metamorphosed; changed from one form into another form. The same word is used in the account of Christ*s transfiguration (Matthew 17:2), where it clearly means a change of the outward appearance.

Matthew 17:2: And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.

The Bible teaches a change of the whole man, the inward as well as the outward.

2 Corinthians 5:17: Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Acts 4:13: Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.

Do people know that you and I have been with Jesus?

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