Sanctify Your Heart

~~~Sixth Sunday of Easter ~~~

~~Acts of the Apostles 8:5-8, 14-17~~Psalm 66~~

~~1 Peter 3:15-18 ~~ John 14:15-21~~

Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts.

Have you ever considered what this verse really means?
Sanctify...set apart as or declare holy; consecrate.

Peter writes of how we are to set apart our hearts as holy....
holy for Christ, the anointed one as Lord.
Does that mean to consecrate only a portion
of our heart for the Lord?
Does it mean we put God in part of our heart,
leaving the rest to do with as we want?
We must each make the decision to legitimize
 the holy presence of the Lord in our heart.
We must claim his presence for ourselves.
He resides in our heart, always there with us as close
 as our next heartbeat.
No one can do it for you.

Always be ready to give an explanation
to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope,
but do it with gentleness and reverence,

You can not give an explanation for something you do not know.
It is this knowledge that Christ in always with us
that gives us a reason to have hope.

...do it with gentleness...
We are the face of God to those we come in contact with everyday.
How we talk with them, how we interact with them
should be a representation of the Christ who
is sanctifying our heart.
The Christ who lives in our heart.
The God who is our all in all...our everything.

Treating others with the utmost respect is one way
 to present the Lord to them.

If we are not capable of exemplifying God's love toward all people;
have we really sanctified a place in our heart for Christ?

What is inside our heart cannot not be confined there.
What is truly in our hearts must become visible to others.
They will know us by our love
because we have set apart our heart for our Lord.

We are Blessed to know this is not just a jumble of empty words
Keep the glow of sanctifying grace in your heart
and it will surely be visible to others.

~~~Peace~~~