Waketh part 1
I try to stay in my lane. If I think I have something to say about a topic, I'll say it. If I don't, I generally just leave it alone. So the themes I find myself repeating over and over--receiving and releasing, living the abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of God by letting HIM live it in you, and through you, and as you--that's because those are the things I feel like I should be saying. And, as always, I don't write because I have it figured out... I write to figure it out. I said all that to say this: I think its important to know that we spend a lot of our lives sleepwalking. I know I Rant on this often--what it means to awake to righteousness--but, like my pastor taught me, "Preach it until your heart is empty on it." So. Look at Song of Solomon 5:2 and lets get into this. "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." I think that's where a lot of people are right now. "I sleep, but my heart waketh." We know there's something more--something better--out there, but we've settled for what the world has thrown at us. We're on autopliot, just going through the motions. Its so easy to get stuck in a rut--which we know is just a grave with the ends kicked out. And here's the deal Genesis 2:21 tells us that, "...the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept..." but the Bible never tells us that God woke Adam up. It wasn't until Jesus came that the problem was addressed. "These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep" (John 11:11). And, look, I get it that Adam and Lazarus were two different people. But I think the truth I'm trying to uncover is sound. God put man to sleep. Jesus came to awake him out of sleep. Jesus came to get us out of our rut. By showing us who we really are. By showing us who God really is. Jesus--God in the flesh. Love in a body. God in OUR flesh. Love in OUR body. Because even as we slept, our heart was awake. Yearning for the love that we had been told was just out of reach. I think the Bible describes David as a man after God's own heart, not because he necessarily "had" it, but because he WANTED it. He was after it. He desired it. Look at Psalm 51:10, "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." David was a man with flaws. Like all of us. But he knew there was something better out there. He knew there was a more excellent way. Like John, when he laid his head on the master's breast, they could hear the heartbeat of God. And now, because of the cross, we have it even better. Because now, because of the cross, we know that God's heart is beating with love in our chests. We know that Jesus stands at the door (of our heart) and knocks. It is His voice of truth saying, "I love you," that entices us to open the door. So that we can sup with Him. Experience His love for us. His love IN us, coming OUT of us. That's what it means to be awake. Our heart has always been awake, and has just been waiting for us to catch up. To WAKE up!