WARNING: this is a journal entry. For those of you not comfortable reading my journal come back later. 🙂

Lately God has been emphasizing the need for and the priority of holiness in my life.

A couple of weeks ago God whispered to me, “It is more important to be a man of God than it is to be a church planter” (or anything else for that matter). (I blogged about it here).

This morning I was reading St. Paul’s letter to the church in the city of Corinth and he writes,

Because we understand our fearful responsibility to the Lord, we work hard to persuade others. God knows we are sincere, and I hope you know this, too.  Are we commending ourselves to you again? No, we are giving you a reason to be proud of us, so you can answer those who brag about having a spectacular ministry rather than having a sincere heart. (2 Corinthians 5:12 NLT)

Again this idea was reinforced, “I want a sincere heart more than a spectacular ministry.”

I want a holy/sincere heart that pleases God more than I want anything else in this world.

So what does a “sincere heart” look like?

St. Paul writes,

If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit. Either way, Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them. (2 Corinthians 5:13-15 NLT)

Based on these handful of verses, a person with a “sincere heart”:

• lives to help others and bring honor to God
• is obedient to God even when others may think he/she is crazy
• acts out of love for God and others
• lives with gratitude and purpose = to please our Leader, Christ

Lord, this is what I want. Please keep rearranging my priorities so that when Walls Down is planted, the priority of my heart will be for a sincere heart before a spectacular ministry.