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"O LORD, God of our fathers Abraham, Isaac and Israel, keep this desire in the hearts of Your people forever, and keep their hearts loyal to You" (1 Chronicles 29:18).

Yesterday we sang a song in our church service that gripped us both, a petition expressing the desire of our hearts that God receive the glory. It's a theme similar to Fanny Crosby's hymn, "To God Be The Glory" as well as Andraé Crouch's song "My Tribute" popular when we were young Christians in the 70's and that we had sung at our wedding. The song yesterday has this refrain:

In this world where there are many with destructive and deadly desires, where people vacillate their loyalties depending on whose name is most often flashed in the neon lights of our society I'm even more mindful of the need to remain steadfast and loyal in my desire for God. David prayed for the people of Israel to have this desire for God and to practice the virtue of loyalty to God in our daily text just prior to his death as he prepared to pass the torch of leadership to his son, Solomon.

The text begins with these words, "O LORD, God of our fathers Abraham, Isaac and Israel". This is a common Scriptural reminder that our faith has a root in history. It is first found in Exodus 3:15 when God spoke to Moses at the burning bush. Interestingly it is last used in Stephen's sermon in Acts 7 referring to the same occasion in Acts 7:30-32. (However in these references it more often uses the name Jacob for Israel, who of course is one and the same person.)

The text has two related petitions of prayer:

"Keep this desire in the hearts of Your people forever." "This desire" contextually speaks of the heart of the people who gave generously to the construction of the temple. But in a more generalized sense it speaks to the heart with a desire to withhold nothing from God; spiritual, physical, or material. We sing, "I Surrender All" striving to keep this desire in our hearts forever, for there are so many things that play tug of war with our heart's desires. We must resolve that our foremost desire will be to follow hard after God keeping our hearts desiring God (Psalm 63:8).

"Keep their hearts loyal to You". The NKJV states, "fix their heart toward You". David had expressed this same aspiration in Psalm 57:7, "My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises!" "Steadfast" means "unwavering, resolute, unyielding, deep-rooted". David was a steadfast follower of God, though his major downfall began when he permitted his desires to take him away from the heart of God and toward the act of adultery, deceit and even murder.

God is a loving, forgiving God that restored David spiritually after his deep heartfelt confession and repentance, though he suffered consequences for the rest of his life. Yet out of his deep-rooted commitment to God David wrote many beautiful songs of praise that still bless and inspire us today.

Today we encourage you to examine your outlook on life. What is your greatest desire? This desire impacts our loyalty to God. How loyal are you? The reality of "surrendering all" is an aspiration but we do well to keep it our desire forever that will in turn buttress our loyalty to God.

Allow me to paraphrase today's verse making it a personal petition to God. Keep the desire of my heart to be after You forever, and keep my heart loyal to You.

The final verse of the song we sang yesterday sums this up:

Be encouraged today! Hebrews 3:13

Stephen & Brooksyne Weber

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