Is Your Heart Open?

Sunday morning retuning: Divorce is something you need to deal with if you are going to talk about God’s Glorious Gift of Marriage.  Pastor Myron addressed this from Scripture with grace and truth.  Everyone of us knows someone who has been effected by this epidemic.  His words were a balm to the weary soul.

These last couple of weeks I have been asking if your eyes and ears are open.  Do you see God at work around you?  Do you hear God’s voice speaking to you?  Theses are important questions, but there is yet a more important one, one upon which hinges the possibility of the first two making a difference at all.  That question…“Is your heart open?”

I ask it fully aware of the fact that we live in a world where every one of us experiences hurt.  Each of those hurts can cause a closing of our hearts, a turning inward away from the source of those hurts.  The real danger is a closing of our hearts to God when we blame Him for some of the pain others have inflicted on us, and even some we have brought on ourselves.  That pain makes loving risky.

I have been working on a “Loving Jesus” song for some time.  These last few months I have been collaborating with Thomas Solich as it has taken its final shape.  Today I had the pleasure of recording this piano ballad with him at his studio in Boardman with our sound engineer Todd Maki.  What a blessing to work with this talented servants!

This morning as I prepared to meet with them, I was moved to the point of tears as I worked through this line "I love You Jesus.  The way you meet us/in both sad and happy days/fills our lives with endless praise/I love You, Jesus."  [I can hardly wait to share this with you.]  He may not always meet us with the answer we want, when we want it, but He always there loving us.  Of this we can be certain.

And that is good because there is plenty of uncertainty in our lives, as each of you is well aware. And this uncertainty, not knowing if your love will be returned makes loving is a risk in every situation, except when you respond to the love of God with love for Him.  It’s not risky, except for the fact that it will ultimately cost you everything you hold dear that you might gain other things of unfathomable and inestimable value.  But I guess that is really not much of a risk after all, if it were not for the risky world we live in and how it makes the return of God’s love seem risky, even though it is not.

All that to say, take a moment right now as you read this and make certain your heart is open to the love of God, and open to returning love to Him.  If you really want to walk a step behind Jesus, you must have an open heart.

Jesus, soften our hard hearts.  We long for more of Your love but too often keep You at a distance with so as not to risk being hurt again.  Open us up to receive Your love and echo it into others lives.  In Jesus name.  Amen.

In Christ,

Pastor Timothy