full purpose of heart.

"Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I beseech of you in words of soberness that ye would repent, and come with full purpose of heart, and cleave unto god as he cleaveth unto you. And while his arm of mercy is extended towards you in the light of the day, harden not your hearts." (Jacob 6:5)

While reading this scripture, one phrase stuck out to me in particular: full purpose of heart.

So I looked up each of those words in my good ol' Merriam-Webster, and this is what I found:

full: filled, complete, abundant, extremely, entirely, the highest or fullest state or degree, the utmost extent

purpose: an object or result aimed at, intention, resolution, determination

heart: the whole personality, one's innermost being

So what does it mean to come with full purpose of heart to God?

According to these definitions, it means that our entire personality, our innermost being is completely and entirely aimed at, determined, and resolved to follow God. We intend on following God and are extremely committed to doing so.

(See February 21, 2014 post to learn more about the word follow.)

Does this mean that we are perfect?

Nope.

We all have to work on it. We have a long way to go before we will be perfect. Fortunately, God sent His Son Jesus Christ to earth to feel all that we feel and to go through all that we go through. Because of that magnificent sacrifice that he made, we CAN work on it. We CAN repent of our sins. We CAN improve every day. We CAN get closer and closer to perfectly coming to God with full purpose of heart.

We will one day be able to say, "My heart is fixed, O God, my Heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise." (Psalms 57:7)