Show Me Your Heart
Father, show me Your heart.
So often I take Your presence, Your love, Your generosity, Your beauty, Your friendship, Your grace, Your provision, Your invitations, Your words, Your revelations, Your whispers, Your songs, Your gifts, Your call, Your kindness, Your invitations, Your beloved ones, Your kingdom for granted. Sometimes I do it because I haven't got a clue You are even there with all of those things in Your hands holding them out to me. Sometimes it happens because I am just too self-absorbed and too busy looking at myself and my stuff and my needs. Sometimes I just don't bother to look Your way. Sometimes I bargain with myself and put You aside because I know You are always there. You won't reject me or stop loving me and these other people and things clamoring for my attention and attending to me might reject me or slip away forever if I don't focus on them right now.
I spend most of my time moving about this planet in my own time zone just kind of muddling along greasing the squeaky wheels and just getting from day to day handling what is right in front of me in each moment while knowing in the back of my mind that at some point I'll get to a place where I can hang out with You and explore all these things I see in my peripheral vision. My life experience and my knowledge of You tells me that whenever I turn and look outside of my tunnel vision, You will be there. When my world gets quiet and still, Your whispers will still be in my ear. When my hands are bloody from rope burns and I find myself crying out at the end of that rope I will find You holding me in Your arms and mending my wounds. And when I see an empty space on my calendar I know You won't mind being the last event scheduled. You'll show up for the appointment.
In every case, when I turn to You, You are there waiting for me. Your loving arms open to embrace, to welcome, to provide, to comfort, to shield, to heal, to save, and more. But how does Your heart feel about that? My heart hurts when I am neglected, second place, taken for granted, ignored, forgotten, passed over, left holding gifts at the door because no one answers, leaving room on my calendar for a promised invitation that never arrives, waiting by the phone that never rings, called on for help only in emergencies. Demands of life, exhaustion, selfishness, poor planning, carelessness - these are the explanations for these hurtful things - for my heart and for Yours. My heart hurts. But what about Yours? Show me Your heart!
I John 3:1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! I John 4:9-10 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Romans 8:38-39 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (NIV) Ephesians 5:2 Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn't love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that. (The Message)
Oh my, Your heart is amazing, Father. When I turn to You and see You standing there waiting for me, I don't see a hurting heart that needs cajoling and apologies and amends before it can welcome me in again. Your heart lives from the place of love without boundaries. Your heart is so full of love - Your heart IS love - and so what I see is Your hands full of gifts being offered to me. I see Your arms open wide to give me a big hug. I see Your calendar has my name on every appointment slot. I see Your table set with all my favorite foods and my chair pulled close to Yours. I see Your piano has a new song sheet on it and the song is called "My Beloved Amy". You don't set limits so that next time You won't be hurt by my foolishness. You don't give up on me. You don't stop calling me Your friend. You just continue to love.
Oh my, how wonderful You are! Thank You for Your heart of love and that Your heart resides in my own and blesses me and teaches me and loves me and loves me and loves me! I long to surrender all that I am to live in Your love and let Your love be what lives my life toward others. In this world, that kind of love is beyond our understanding but it is what turns our hearts to You. Love in me and through me, Father, so that Your heart is what the world sees in me. Show Your heart to them, too.
Loving from His heart,
Amy
Ephesians 3:17b-19 And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
So often I take Your presence, Your love, Your generosity, Your beauty, Your friendship, Your grace, Your provision, Your invitations, Your words, Your revelations, Your whispers, Your songs, Your gifts, Your call, Your kindness, Your invitations, Your beloved ones, Your kingdom for granted. Sometimes I do it because I haven't got a clue You are even there with all of those things in Your hands holding them out to me. Sometimes it happens because I am just too self-absorbed and too busy looking at myself and my stuff and my needs. Sometimes I just don't bother to look Your way. Sometimes I bargain with myself and put You aside because I know You are always there. You won't reject me or stop loving me and these other people and things clamoring for my attention and attending to me might reject me or slip away forever if I don't focus on them right now.
I spend most of my time moving about this planet in my own time zone just kind of muddling along greasing the squeaky wheels and just getting from day to day handling what is right in front of me in each moment while knowing in the back of my mind that at some point I'll get to a place where I can hang out with You and explore all these things I see in my peripheral vision. My life experience and my knowledge of You tells me that whenever I turn and look outside of my tunnel vision, You will be there. When my world gets quiet and still, Your whispers will still be in my ear. When my hands are bloody from rope burns and I find myself crying out at the end of that rope I will find You holding me in Your arms and mending my wounds. And when I see an empty space on my calendar I know You won't mind being the last event scheduled. You'll show up for the appointment.
In every case, when I turn to You, You are there waiting for me. Your loving arms open to embrace, to welcome, to provide, to comfort, to shield, to heal, to save, and more. But how does Your heart feel about that? My heart hurts when I am neglected, second place, taken for granted, ignored, forgotten, passed over, left holding gifts at the door because no one answers, leaving room on my calendar for a promised invitation that never arrives, waiting by the phone that never rings, called on for help only in emergencies. Demands of life, exhaustion, selfishness, poor planning, carelessness - these are the explanations for these hurtful things - for my heart and for Yours. My heart hurts. But what about Yours? Show me Your heart!
I John 3:1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! I John 4:9-10 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Romans 8:38-39 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (NIV) Ephesians 5:2 Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn't love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that. (The Message)
Oh my, Your heart is amazing, Father. When I turn to You and see You standing there waiting for me, I don't see a hurting heart that needs cajoling and apologies and amends before it can welcome me in again. Your heart lives from the place of love without boundaries. Your heart is so full of love - Your heart IS love - and so what I see is Your hands full of gifts being offered to me. I see Your arms open wide to give me a big hug. I see Your calendar has my name on every appointment slot. I see Your table set with all my favorite foods and my chair pulled close to Yours. I see Your piano has a new song sheet on it and the song is called "My Beloved Amy". You don't set limits so that next time You won't be hurt by my foolishness. You don't give up on me. You don't stop calling me Your friend. You just continue to love.
Oh my, how wonderful You are! Thank You for Your heart of love and that Your heart resides in my own and blesses me and teaches me and loves me and loves me and loves me! I long to surrender all that I am to live in Your love and let Your love be what lives my life toward others. In this world, that kind of love is beyond our understanding but it is what turns our hearts to You. Love in me and through me, Father, so that Your heart is what the world sees in me. Show Your heart to them, too.
Loving from His heart,
Amy
Ephesians 3:17b-19 And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Thanks for the reminder of how deep and wide Father's love really is. So glad his was are not like ours.
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I completely agree! And He wants you to know He loves you VERY MUCH, friend.
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