You fathom the depth of My own heart only to the extent that your heart is broken and your inmost consciousness torn asunder by the pain of grief.
~Frances J. Roberts
Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the clans of the house of Israel. Thus says the Lord: “What wrong did your fathers find in Me
that they went far from Me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless? They did not say, ‘Where is the Lord who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us in the wilderness, in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and deep darkness, in a land that none passes through, where no man dwells?’ And I brought you into a plentiful land
to enjoy its fruits and its good things. But when you came in, you defiled My land and made My heritage an abomination. The priests did not say, ‘Where is the Lord?’ Those who handle the law did not know Me; the shepherds transgressed against Me; the prophets prophesied by Baal and went after things that do not profit. “Therefore I still contend with you, declares the Lord, and with your children’s children I will contend. For cross to the coasts of Cyprus and see, or send to Kedar and examine with care; see if there has been such a thing. Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But My people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, for My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.
~ The Weeping Prophet in Jeremiah 2
Oh beloved, it is true. But why? We, the greatly loved, totally saved, completely freed, and befriended of G_d almighty, will – at the drop of the tiniest of circumstances – run back into the barely-standing shack of our flesh and start rummaging around for supplies.
The heavens are appalled at things like this. Things into which angels long to look, are treated as some sort of left over packaging from a cheap fast food meal. We toss away the unfathomable riches He is pouring into our lives, and try live on our own (very limited) credit.
Oh, we know it is wrong in some sort of cerebral way. But we really don’t think it is that big of a deal for us to try and deal with our own problems. But again, in putting ourselves into the center of our own thinking, we miss the entire point of what we are doing.
We are committing adultery in the most-real of marriages.
We don’t think we are, but it is because we are losing sight of that which nothing else in the heavens ever forgets: G_d is a Person. He is actually the only real and whole and true Person there is. And Persons have feelings. They have reached out to us from the very depths of eternity and lavished a needless Love upon us.
And the fact that we are spurning this Love is a source of pain for the G_dhead. Thankfully, because He is Love, the response is nothing like how we would respond. For Love bears all things, and rejoices when the truth wins out (which it always does).
This tends to make things tough for us. We can ignore the Love, which leads us to further despair, or we can begin to comprehend it – which breaks our heart. For once we begin to get a clue of how rudely we have treated the Fairest Suitor Among Ten Thousands, we begin to see how incredibly stupid and prideful we really are.
Can we see it? Love does this. For the only path to the complete healing of our hearts is to have them so shattered and broken that they need replacing. But when we get to this place, we find the pain of the process has been completely worth it. For now, the heart He has put within us beats strong and in rhythm with the reality of eternity (which He inhabits).
So, yeah, the problem of us trying to deal with our own stuff, in our own strength is quite a problem indeed. And the main problem is not that we mess things up. The main problem is that we bring pain to the only One who can heal ours. We are hurting our very Best Friend.
However, once we get it, this begins to make all the difference in our lives. We begin to see that our relationship with G_d is just that. And in place of all the religious nonsense we brought to the table for years, we begin to see that the very Person of Jesus (and His Enormous Heart) are very real. And in understanding His reality, we can let all the pre-conceived notions fall away as we simply stay in the process of getting to know Him forever.
Are you struggling with the idea of abiding with Christ? Perhaps tonight is the night for you to come to understand that you getting to know a Person who will never fail you or leave you. He is real. Look to Him beloved. Oh, He is Wonderful!
