Psalm 27:8-9
You have said, "Seek my face."
My heart says to You, "Your face, LORD, do I seek."
What does your heart say?
Your heart is saying something.
Your heart is saying something about what it seeks.
Can you hear your heart? We are conditioned to avoid our hearts--noise, speed, hurry, fear, shame. We avoid the thing within us that seeks Jesus.
We walk around like The Tin Man--shiny facades, busy, busy, busy, but functionally heartless. Like Paul describes it, "driven by the wind and tossed around." We're rarely in conversation with our inner-thoughts, our motives. We avoid reflection. We rush past. We bury our hearts under headphones, calendars, to-do lists, and unspoken ever-unmet expectations.
We need quiet, solitude, slowness, limits, and the Gospel.
What was the worst of the Genesis 3 sins? Was it the eating of the forbidden-fruit? Was it Adam and Eve adding to God's Genesis 2:17 word? Or was it the hiding? I wonder: the disobedience could have been forgiven, if Adam had asked for mercy. But by hiding, by not bringing himself to God, he prevented whatever wonder might have happened next.
Let us stop this hiding of our hearts. Our hearts were made for God.
The heart speaks to a select group: one's self and one's Creator. If we refuse to open up to God, then our hearts, our inner-dialogue, grows toxic--it becomes a pair of whispering teenagers or a furtive set of eyes peaking from behind drawn curtains.
But our hearts may speak to God. In fact, to what extent are we in a relationship with God if our hearts don't speak to Him, and He doesn't speak to our hearts? Relating to a person involves sharing ourselves, our hearts. This is the wonderful world into which Jesus has brought us: "Let us with confidence draw near to the throne of grace!" (Heb 4:16)
God aims, in Jesus, to restore Eden--New Creation! That is, to speak with us face to face, to know us heart to heart.
Listen to your heart. This is what it says, "Your face, LORD, do I seek." Jesus is who we want. He knows that. But do we?
What does your heart say?
Photo by Alexander Andrews on Unsplash
