Give Me the Heart
IllustrationAnalogyObject Lesson★★★★★A man had a valuable clock. It was made of solid gold. I had jewels on the inside and jewels on the outside. One day as human inventions do, it wore out and stopped running and wouldn’t keep time.
The man wanted to have it fixed, but he was scared that if he had it fixed at the shop they’d take the jewels out. Or steal some of the gold. So he worried about it and worried about it and worried about it until one day he got an idea.
He said, “It’s the hands that keep time,” so took them off and wrapped them up and took them down to the clock shop. And he to the man, ”I’ve got a very valuable clock and these hands used to keep the correct time, but they don’t anymore so I brought them down here to see if you could fix them.”
He rolled out the bundle and there were two clock hands. The man said, “Sir if you want that clock to work right you’ve got to bring me the heart.” Jesus said, “Give me thine heart” not your hands. It’s your heart that tells your hands what to do.
Don’t give me you eyes because it’s your mind that tells your eyes what to look at. He didn’t say, “Give Me your mouth”, Neither did he say give Me your feet,” for out of heart are issues of life. If we surrender our heart to Jesus then our mind takes over.
If a mind has Jesus enthroned on it then things will be different. Then the mind will say to a hand that wants to steal, “You better not!”
A consecrated mind will say to mouth that wants to gossip, “Shut up!” A consecrated mind will say to the eyes set no evil thing before you eyes (Ps 101:3).
Matt 15:19-20.
The point
A man brings a broken golden clock to a clockmaker, bringing only the hands to be fixed, but the clockmaker says he needs the heart—illustrating Jesus's call to surrender the heart, not mere outward obedience.
Alternate wording
Bring Me The Heart295 words
A man had a valuable clock. It was made of solid gold. It had jewels on the inside. One day as human inventions do, it wore out and stopped running and wouldn’t keep time.
The man wanted to have it fixed, but he was scared that if he had it fixed at a shop they’d take the jewels out. Or steal some of the gold. So he worried about it and worried about it and worried about it until one day he got an idea. He said it the hands that don’t keep time, so took them off and wrapped them and took them down to the clock shop. And he said to the man, “I’ve got a very valuable clock and these hands used to keep the correct time, but they don’t anymore so I brought them down here to see if you could straighten them out.” He rolled out the bundle and there was two clock hands. The man said, “Sir if you want that clock to work right you’ve got to bring me the heart.”
Jesus said, “Give me thine heart” not your hands. It’s your heart that tells your hands what to do. Didn’t give me your eyes because it’s your mind that tells your eyes what to look at. Not mouth, not feet out of heart are issues of life. If we surrender our heart to Jesus then our mind takes over. If a mind has Jesus enthroned on it then things will be different. Then the mind will say to a hand that wants to steal, “You better not!” A consecrated mind will say to mouth that wants to gossip, “Shut up!” A consecrated mind will say to the eyes set no evil thing before your eyes (Ps 101:3).