Your heart is your heavenly Father’s prize. Your impact on the earth—the words you speak, all your actions, your desire to love other people, your destiny, your legacy—flows from the fountain of your heart. So it’s vital to keep that fountain protected and well fed with God’s love. 

This week at BTO, we’re asking God to reveal His heart to you. He treasures your heart and felt it was worth making a huge sacrifice for. On your darkest day, THAT is how much your heart matters to Him. 

Here are a few Bible-based prayers and declarations to help you establish your new year in God’s love:

Declaration #1: I choose to trust God with my heart this year.

To know your heart, all you have to do is listen to how you speak, because whatever is in your heart will come out of your mouth.

Begin 2020 by committing your heart to God. He will guide you on paths of blessing.

Above all else, guard your heart,
for everything you do flows from it. (Prov. 4:23 NIV)

Pray this aloud: Father God, I choose to set my heart in Your hands. Please direct it the way You want it to go, and may it always be soft and tender toward You. Fill my heart with Your love so everything I say sounds like You and brings You glory.

Declaration #2: I invite the hope of God to fill up the areas in my life where I struggle with hope.

When we believe a lie, walking in the truth of God becomes more difficult than it needs to be.

Is there any place inside you where you don’t fully believe God’s Word? Is there a lack of forgiveness or hope? Is there resentment or anger? Or a lie that’s keeping you from understanding how much He really loves you?

Don’t focus on things that might be “wrong” inside you, but allow the Holy Spirit to give you hope in those places where you thought you had no hope. This is an important aspect of guarding your heart.

Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting. (Ps. 139:23–24)

Pray this aloud: Holy Spirit, please show me what’s really going on in my heart. I want to surrender it all to You and start this year off in a new way. Please open my eyes to what You’re doing inside me, and help me to fix my gaze on the amazing hope found in You.

Declaration #3: I accept God’s love for me, knowing full well it is far beyond my understanding.

The love of God is so big that the human mind can’t wholly comprehend it. We can’t explain all its details, figure it out like an equation on paper, or find any point where it weakens.

The human heart and soul were made for the love of God. We thirst for it on a daily basis and can’t operate at our best without it—nor can we love the way He created us to love if we don’t know His love firsthand. His love is our core need.

God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out,
his merciful love couldn’t have dried up.
They’re created new every morning.
How great your faithfulness! (Lam. 3:22–23 MSG)

Pray this aloud: Father, I want to experience the love of Christ more and more until it fills me up! May my heart, soul, mind, and body find their peace in You as I rest in the great love You have for me. May this be a year of knowing Your love. 

Here’s our prayer for you this week:

Father God,

Thank You for Your love and that it waits for us. It doesn’t write us off or give up on us. It sees us at our worst and reaches out hands to help, instead of turning away. 

This week, Father, please meet our readers in a special way. May they have divine encounters with Your love—such strong encounters that they’re able to let go of all shame, condemnation, or bitterness they’ve been holding against themselves. Open their eyes wide so they can see how much You love them.

— The BTO Staff

Before you go! 

Do you find it difficult to love yourself? Many people wrestle with this topic that’s much easier to talk about than actually do. 

Here are a few thoughts from an article titled “What Does It Mean to Love Ourselves?” by Danny Silk:

We know loving ourselves is biblical, because Jesus said that loving ourselves is inseparable from loving God and others...

If this life is a School of Love, then the three main subjects we must master are Loving God, Loving Others, and Loving Ourselves. Growing in love means learning to do them all well. But the most important thing we must understand is where our lessons in love begin.

Loving ourselves—or God and others—does not begin with what we do, but what we allow to be done to us. It begins not with giving, but with receiving.

As John puts it, our love is categorically a response to the One who loves us perfectly, for He is Love: “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19 ESV).

Go forth, precious child of God, into a new year filled with His love for you.

 

Interested in more? Check out some of our other prayers and declarations:

• How to Make Great Choices in 2020

• Connecting with God When You’re in Pain

• Declarations for the Single’s Heart

• Declarations for Conquering Shame

• Blessing Your Future Spouse’s Family Even When You’re Single

For more information on sex, marriage, and finding the person who is right for you, get a copy of Becoming the One by Salomé Roat. Click here to learn more.

You can also order the book in Spanish.