Our Hearts, God's Home?

“God loves each of us as if there was only one of us to love.” William Barclay

Do we romanticize our relationship with God? How can God truly be God instead of who we think He is? Is my heart clean? Would God choose to dwell in my heart? Could He find a home in my heart?

I read a story to my son when he was young: Where Would A Bunny Find A Home?
Bunny looked everywhere- in the robin’s nest, the river with the crocodile; always asking: “Are you my mother?” He didn’t know her and she had not known him. This was a tragedy to be rectified! Yet everyone said, “No.”

Quite by accident one day Bunny tripped over a log, only to discover another bunny hiding beneath it. She wasn’t his mother, but they became friends and chose to build a home together. That was how Bunny found his home.

I want to know God more personally, don’t you? How would you go about getting to know God? Like the bunny, we notice others in whom perhaps we see signs of God. Signs of what? Safety, security, encouragement, love? Do we expect to encounter admonishment, accountability, discipline and respect as well? Jesus came to ‘show us the way.’ He said, “I am the way,”

Can a weekly appointment in a building with hundreds or thousands of strangers look anything like that way? Is is enough to find personal, one on one relationship with God in that weekly appointment alone? Sunday school teachings, good gospel readings, being one who takes the offering, lights the candles, places the flowers- are these ways to a closer walk with Christ? Certainly all these are good intentioned ways to get closer at church. Is there more? Does anyone else wonder?

We encounter a lot each day with spouses, children, parents, clients, bosses, bills, deals, contracts; with people on the roads, in the shops, at office, at home, in the neighbourhood, in the street, in the town… how can a person cope? “Just help me get thru till Sunday service! Then I can get thru another week!” Can you?

Shouldn’t we want more than a weekly meeting? More reading, discovering, praying, worshiping, and realizing there’s more to relationship with God than Sunday teachings and Wednesday night services. AA even offers more than the weekly meeting. When you join them you get a personal sponsor, too. A sponsor is someone who’s committed to walking thru the storms of quitting drinking with you. At ‘church’ we can join a small group and/or choose to get more involved with church on a daily basis. All good stuff, for sure. But do we know about the covenant commitment God has made with His people?

Hopefully you won’t get so busy showing up for all your new activities that you have less and less time for the One who wants to know you more than any other! You don’t need to join anything to get to know Him. Matter of fact, you might need to skip a few things because He will come when you least expect it and if you aren’t careful you could miss Him. Have you noticed those ten virgins in the book of Matthew?

In the midst of difficult, even tumultuous times we get busy, deny or do something desperately drastic. We become so overwhelmed we simply move into overload, shut down or come apart at the seams. This is the time when we need to look for Jesus. Can you see Him in those circumstances? Don’t be afraid! He’s right there with you!

Your searching may be a bit like ‘Where’s Waldo” at first, but hang in there, stick with it. He’s about to appear! Listen for His voice, His words, His Love. Solomon says…

“Who is this coming out of the desert like a column of smoke perfumed with myrrh and incense, made from all the spices of the merchant?”

Who are those at the wedding banquet without proper attire?

“The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city,

‘Have you seen the one my heart loves?’

Scarcely had I passed them when I found the one my heart loves. I held him and I would not let him go.

For then you will hear your lover say… How beautiful you are my darling!

Listen! My Lover! Look! Here He comes! My lover spoke and said to me,
“Arise my darling, my beautiful one and come with me.” But my heart- is it deceitfully wicked? Can it be cleaned? Can pure love, true love wash away a multitude of sin?

“Scarcely had I passed them when I found the one my heart loves. I held him and I would not let him go.”

Scarcely do we get passed our sin to forgive ourselves, scarcely are we allowed to pass thru to learn that… God’s love is the only love great enough to accomplish the cleansing our hearts need. It’s always available, like an open heaven. Come on in! But don’t do a drive by or order take away; come in, spend time, sit, relax, lie down, immerse yourself in His presence like jumping in the swimming pool. He’ll surround you, envelope you and fill you.

“Who is this coming out of the desert leaning on her lover?”


S.Hill, bnfrsa@sentechsa.com
Blood N Fire, RSA
Cape Town, South Africa

Arms of Love by Janice VanCronkhite http://www.jvcartworks.com