For anyone to prepare to face the Lord in the Judgment Day they have to have their heart in the right place.  Obviously, we are not thinking about the heart as the organ which pumps blood throughout the human body, but rather the heart that functions in many ways.  Consider ten things we do with our hearts that will help us in understanding the points of this article:
 

1. We understand with our hearts (Matthew 13:14-16 and John 12:40).
2. We believe with our hearts (Romans 10:10).
3. Our hearts can bring us close to or further away from God (Matthew 15:8).
4. We think and reason from our hearts (Matthew 9:4 and Mark 2:6).
5. What we speak comes from the heart (Matthew 12:34).
6. Forgiveness comes from our hearts (Matthew 18:35).
7. We purpose from our hearts (II Corinthians 9:7).
8. Our desires come from our hearts (Romans 10:3).
9. Sorrow comes from the heart (Psalms 13:2).  Consider that godly sorrow works repentance (II Corinthians 7:10).
10. We love and obey from the heart (I Timothy 1:5 and Romans 6:17).

     While it is certain that we can have a heart that says one thing and actions that say another (Psalms 55:21), we have to fix our hearts on the Lord and His righteousness to be saved.  Notice the following from the Psalmist: “Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness: he is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous.  A good man sheweth favour, and lendeth: he will guide his affairs with discretion.  Surely he shall not be moved for ever: the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.  He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.  His heart is established, he shall not be afraid, until he see his desire upon his enemies” (Psalms 112:4-8).  When our heart is fixed on God and our trust is placed with Him, we will have our priorities straight.

     Notice the following: “And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all?  And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment” (Mark 12:28-30).  As directly and plainly stated by our Savior, we must love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, and mind.  This is a paramount factor in declaring our priorities.  If God has all of our attention that means He will be at the center of not just a few, but all of our decisions.

     Consider the following applications.  The first is a scenario.  A family is on vacation traveling across the country and viewing the popular sights.  Mom and dad are both Christians, while their younger children are not at a point appropriate to realize right from wrong (James 4:17).  Thus, they have not obeyed such instructions as stated in the New Testament to have one’s sins remitted and to be born into Christ (Acts 2:38, John 3:3-5, and Galatians 3:27).  They have left west Texas on Thursday morning and will be gone for two weeks.  They have their map, snacks, casual clothing, games, travel plans, and hotel reservations.  They do not have their Bibles, locations of faithful congregations to worship with, or plans to be in places where there are sound churches to worship with.  Come Sunday they are in Utah and have awoken Sunday morning to look in the phone book to find a place to worship as they rush to get ready.  To their ignorant surprise, there is no local church of Christ meeting where they have stayed.  Now, they are going to fail to partake of the commanded Lord’s Supper (I Corinthians 11:23-26; cf. Acts 20:7).  They are going to fail to assemble with saints (Hebrews 10:25).  Their priorities have been clearly stated.  They want to enjoy traveling, they’ve made all their plans, and not one of those plans involved worshipping God.

     Our second application is based upon giving to God.  We know that we are to financially contribute to the work of the local church on the first day of the week (I Corinthians 16:1-2).  Such is not to be done grudgingly, but as planned with a cheerful heart (II Corinthians 9:7).  When we are giving to the Lord it must be of the first planning we do with our finances.  God has always desired our “first fruits” (Exodus 23:16; 19).  When a Christian decides to give God his / her leftovers from a paycheck, investment return, or any other income; they are not giving God the first fruits.  We cannot claim that our hearts are fixed upon the Lord when we are shuffling through our wallet, purse, or checkbook to figure out what’s left to give to God.

     Our third and final application, though we could have almost endless applications, is having our priorities straight in relation to our attitudes about truth.  The word of God is truth (John 17:17).  As Christians we are supposed to walk in truth (III John 3-4).  We are supposed to keep the commandments of our Lord (I John 2:3-5).  These principles have too often been forgotten among brethren and that is a direct result of a lack of commitment to the Lord.  Brethren have decided to side with men instead of God on too many matters of truth.  These brethren have opted to sell the truth (Proverbs 23:23).  They have ears that they like tickled (Isaiah 30:9-11 and II Timothy 4:2-5).  When we prioritize the words of men over the word of God, we are no longer serving God (Mark 7:7-9 and Galatians 1:10).  Properly setting our hearts on the Lord will allow us to make right determinations in all areas of our lives.

     We can know right from wrong (Hebrews 5:14).  We know that our decisions can be affected by those whom we surround ourselves with, as well as things like our choices in media (I Corinthians 15:33).  What we must do is allow the word of God to be our guide (Psalms 119:105).  We must allow God to be first in our lives so that our decisions surround Him and our faithful service to Him (Colossians 3:1-3).  We ought to delight in being able to walk in the ways of the Lord (Psalms 119:35).

     Christians often like to excuse themselves with, “well, I don’t know what I’d do in that situation” and such like comments.  I certainly understand that we do not want to act as though we cannot fall (I Corinthians 10:12).   That being said, we also better know that our hearts are settled on right and that we will choose to do right when presented the options of sin or righteousness.  We must be able to state that we will obey the Lord (Joshua 24:15 and Acts 21:10-14).  When Peter and John were commanded not to speak in the name of the Lord they said: “But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye.  For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19-20).  We need to be able to answer as did Peter and John.  A “I hope I will obey” is not a statement of faith it is to the contrary.  To further conclude this point, James wrote: “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin” (James 4:17).  If our heart is fixed on God then our faith will overrule temptation!

     Is your heart fixed upon God?  The Psalmist wrote saying: “With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments.  Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee” (Psalms 119:10-11).  If we want to fix our hearts upon the Lord it will be through seeking Him with our whole heart.  We will have to pray often for His help (Psalms 79:9; cf. I Thessalonians 5:17).  We will have to put the word of God into our hearts so that we will not sin against the Lord.  We will have to be doers of that word (James 1:21-25).

     We have seen that the bible heart is where we think, believe, reason, love, desire, etc.  It is therefore no secret that we must turn our hearts completely to God (Jeremiah 3:10 and Joel 2:12).  If our heart is fixed on God our thoughts, beliefs, reasoning, love, desires, etc. will all be controlled by God.  As the Scriptures teach, our hearts are where we put our treasures (Matthew 6:19-21).  The time we have to spend in thought, study, and prayer to properly serve God is a treasure.  Time is of value.  If we spend a good amount of time on God, our hearts will be fixed upon Him, and our choices will be right!