"Give Your Heart To the Lord!"

I have been thinking about this expression which I have heard so often. This is a favorite evangelical expression which a Christian will use to bring a non-Christian to salvation in Christ.
But, fundamentally, is this “Give your heart to the Lord!” really applicable to a non-Christian? Have we tended to put the cart before the horse in this area?
Perhaps we have lost sight of what the gospel truly is. The gospel is a message from heaven that God loves sinners. The gospel is that God knew man could not be what He wanted him to be within himself, so Christ was appointed to die in condemnation for our sins. This would give God the right to put into the creature man another life – one that pleased Him, the divine Life of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
The gospel is the report that peace has been made for the poor sinner through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
Salvation is not a “belief” of some sort requiring a kind of “giving of the heart” by the sinner. But it is the receiving of another Person whom God has ordained to be the operating Life in the reborn person.
The gospel is the receiving of Christ – not just what He has done, but whom God intends that He be IN US. It is not only the accepting of the gospel, but the receiving acceptance of the Person of the gospel – Christ.
What has long been the initial idea of “getting saved” in Christian circles has been to impress upon the sinner his duty by saying, “Give your heart to Christ!” It is probably unwise to urge this on the sinner as if this were the gospel because it can cause them to begin wrongly in their walk with God. It is not what we give to Him.
Giving your heart to Christ is a law idea, rather than Paul’s gospel of grace. It is most proper that it be done at the right time, of course, for God Himself demands it. But in urging that it be done to receive salvation is putting the cart before the horse. When a new believer starts with the idea that he must do something, or even that he can do anything, he is plagued with the idea of being able to do something throughout all of his Christian experience. This is what keeps many from the rest that God the Father has for them.
We must recognize that if we start out believing that we can do something to be saved, then a seed of independent, self-effort religion is planted. And all our days this keeps us doing rather than entering into our rest of just being.
Salvation is the receiving of Christ into a living union within us. It is all about accepting this free gift and just receiving and not “giving” anything.
This “receiving” gives us the “horse” which will pull the “cart” of our continuing life. Having the “horse” of Christ within us with His power and leadership, THEN your heart will begin to be given to Him, not as a matter of the law, but of love.
For if you have the love of His heart poured into yours, you will feel yourself under the constraining influence of a love impulse to GIVE Him your heart in return, along with all you are and have!
It is RIGHT to give Him your heart – but unless you first receive the open proof of having His Life, you will never really give Him your heart.

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