An Open Heart part 3
We all have reasons to close our hearts down. We've all been hurt. Beat down, busted, and disgusted. Life gets us all. And I think that's really just a "natural" reaction--you get hurt, and you lash out. You shut it down so you can't get hurt again. But I put "natural" in quotation marks because on this side of the cross we have a new nature. Not the selfish, soulish, carnal nature that defined Adam before the cross. Let me say it like this: In Psalm 51:10 David cries out, "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." That's what happened on the cross. And I love the word "renew" because it speaks of a return to how things were originally. A return to your first love, if I can say it that way. Which references Revelation 2:4, "Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love," and 1 John 4:19, "We love him, because he first loved us." Our first love is HIS love for us. That's what we left, in a sense, when Adam and Eve hid from the presence of God. He still loved us--always has and always will... He IS love, after all--but we closed ourselves off to it. We brought it into a realm where we thought we needed to earn it with our performance. But David was a man after God's own heart. Which, I've always maintained, means he WANTED God's heart. He knew something was missing. He had a God-shaped, love-shaped hole inside. And while he couldn't fill it himself, at least he knew what WOULD fill it. Create in me a clean heart. An open heart. A heart that hasn't been dirtied up and kicked around. A heart that isn't bitter, and resentful. A heart that can receive and release your love. Bring me back to my first love--which is you, Father God, loving me. And from there, from that foundation, we can build. We can let what's inside--what's REALLY inside, which is the love of God--come out. By knowing and believing its in there. Heart and soul is the old catchphrase, right? But really its heart and spirit. A clean heart and a right spirit. An open heart and the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of truth that leads and guides us into all truth. The truth that God is love and He loves you. The truth that no matter how much tribulation you face in the world... you can be of good cheer. Because God, Jesus, LOVE, has overcome the world. Love is the ultimate power in the universe. So if we close ourselves off to it we leave ourselves powerless. Because saying that love is all powerful doesn't mean love is most powerful. It means love is the ONLY power. Love wins. Love WON. On the cross. When a God wrapped in human flesh chose to prove His love by laying His life down. By giving His life for us, and to us. So like I said, I understand the impulse to shut it down. I've been there, done that, got the t-shirt. I have a phd in shutting it down--Personally Have Done It. But that's no way to live. Especially when there's so much more available to us. A more excellent way. A way, a truth, and a life... of love. It comes from a clean heart. An open heart. And a right spirit. The Holy Spirit.