Outward Obedience

Too many of us live lives of outward obedience and inward disobedience. We go through all the motions of Christianity but our heart belongs to us. We will give God a tithe but not our checkbooks, some money but not control of our business. We will give God some time but not our lives. We will give God our emotions but not our patient trust in difficult times. We will give God a song of praise and worship but only if it's in a style of music we like. We will give God our allegiance but only if our circumstances reflect visibly that He deserves it. We are reluctant Christians, fair weather believers, divided in our loyalties and halfheartedly impatient with our faith. Our lives are acts of self-worship. We could never rejoice in the Lord with a burden on our heart, in a prison, a captive in a foreign culture trying with all its seductive powers to assimilate us into their mindset, after a shipwreck, after a beating, after hearing God say "no" to our fervent prayer for deliverance, while carrying our cross.
We must give Him our whole hearts. We must daily pray with Paul "for to me, to live is Christ, to die gain." We must give ourselves a living sacrifice.
How do I know if I've done that? In pit, prison or palace, in a culture that is constantly tempting me, moment by moment, to call good evil and evil good, in circumstances that are crushing my heart, in physical weakness that is so debilitating that I must rely on others to help me bear my cross, and in moments when I feel no emotion at all, can I continue to say the right things about God, can I rejoice in the Lord always, can I be perfectly content, can I live today unafraid of any tomorrow?
Who will be the love of our hearts? Today will reveal it. "Take my heart and let it be, consecrated Lord to Thee."