O Lord, you will ordain peace for us,
for You have indeed done for us all our works.
(Isaiah 26:12 )
This simple statement raises a profound question: How can they be “our works” if the Lord has “indeed done them for us”?
Moses says to the people:
Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.
Deuteronomy 10:16
But then He turns right around and says:
And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. Deuteronomy 30:6
So again we ask, “Is it God who does the circumcising of our hearts, or do we do it?”
Let’s take a couple of New Testament passages. Paul wrote to the Christians in Philippi:
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my
If it is “God who works in them both to will and to work”, then why does Paul order them to “obey” by “working out their own salvation”?
Or here it is again in Hebrews:
Now may the God of peace . . .equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ . . .” Hebrews 13:20–21
If “God is working in us that which is pleasing in his sight”, how can it be we “who do His will”?
We see the same paradox in both the Old and New Testaments. As you might guess, the answer is not “either-or”, it’s “both and.” Fine. But if it’s actually God “who is working in me both the will and to work”, then how do I go about actually doing that?
I think it starts when we clear the first obstacle:
Incline my heart to your testimonies,
and not to selfish gain! Psalm 119:36
Do not let my heart incline to any evil,
to busy myself with wicked deeds
. . . Psalm 141:4
Both of these passages focus on that mysterious, difficult, unruly part of our inner being that the scriptures call “the heart.” It is easily hurt, hard to manage, and often overrides the wisdom of our own thoughts. And . . . it often determines whether we will say “Yes” to God’s will or not. So in these two passages, we see the secret. The two Psalmists are both asking God to be the manager of their heart.
“So you’re saying that prayer is critical to letting God “both will and to work” in our hearts?”
Exactly! Working out our own salvation starts by asking God to both will and to work in us for His good pleasure. (Phil.) I circumcise the foreskin of my heart by asking God to do that in me (Deut.). I let God work in me that which is pleasing in His sight (Heb.) by asking Him to do it.
When I ask Him to work on my heart, I’m letting God into my life at the very core of my being, and I’m letting Him make whatever changes there that He wants to. I’m also giving Him my permission to carry out His will both with and through my life.
When I do that, when I specifically ask God to manage my heart and to carry out the task at hand together with me, then my actions make that miraculous transformation from being “my work” to being “His work in and through me”! And then He gets the glory. It’s a beautiful thing!
And, as you might expect, this asking is not a one-time thing. We need to persist in it, making it a part of the coming and going of our daily life. You can see how this works in the life of King Solomon. At the dedication of the temple that he built for God, he prays:
. . . May God not leave us or forsake us, that he may incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his rules, which he commanded our fathers. 59Let these words of mine, with which I have pleaded before the Lord, be near to the Lord our God day and night . . . 1 Kings 8:57–61
In spite of such a beautiful prayer, Solomon finishes his life as a blatant idolater! How can that be!? Didn’t his prayer work? Did God stop inclining his heart to walk in all of His ways? No. I think we are forced to conclude that Solomon stopped asking.
So what about you? Are you daily asking God to be the manager of your heart?
