A Soft Heart part 2
Guarding and keeping your heart is vitally important. But understanding what it means to guard your heart--not closing it down but opening it up--is equally important. Because the heart is the door to everything. And if the door is closed nothing can get in or out. But if the door is open... that's when God's love flows to you, and through you! Look at Song of Solomon 5:2, "I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night." Did you catch that? Even when we are sleep walking through life, our heart--buried deep down within--is awake. Yearning to connect on that Spirit to Spirit, holy to holy level. And look at what woke the heart up, the voice of my beloved that knocked on the door. (We're going to get to the knocking in just a minute.) The VOICE knocked on the door. The Word of God. Which is Jesus, which is love. Remember, He gave us a pure heart. And we keep it (pure) by using it as it was intended. By loving others with the love that we are loved with. We had a hard heart, but God circumized us. He cut away the flesh and gave us a soft heart. One that receive and release His love. He gave us His Holy Spirit--the love receptor. But--and I say this all the time--God is too much of a gentleman to force His love on us. According to Revelation 3:20, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Jesus--our true identity, the heart that beats with love in our chests, the door--stands at the door and knocks. He set a table for us in the presence of our enemies, and then He invites us to sup with Him. He made the way of grace, and we respond with the walk of faith. We respond by opening the door. By keeping our heart soft. By not letting hurt and bitterness and regret turn our heart to steel. We respond by staying open to love. Letting God love us. Letting God fill us to overflowing with His love--wtih Himself--so that it overflows out of us naturally. That's how we keep and guard our heart. By hearing our beloved knock and opening ourselves to His presence. By believing--not "blind faith"--because He gave us something (Himself, love) to believe in. You can't keep your heart safe by hiding it. That just hurts you and everyone around you. Because a heart isn't "safe." It's fearless. Love casts out all fear. I know we've all probably been burned at some point, but I don't believe a heart can break. It's too strong. It can ACHE, but it never runs out of love. Because it's connected to the unlimited source. And the key to love is... the more you give it away, the more you find that you have. You don't run out because you can't run out. Sharing things makes them real. Love is the realest thing there is. A soft heart is one that knows that it is loved, and loves others with that same love!