Heart Matters

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”  Jesus said to him, “”You shall love the Lord you God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”  Matthew 22:36-40

As a mathematically challenged person I remember how nervous I was about having to take geometry as a high school sophomore all those many years ago.  I’d heard geometry was unlike any other class and even different from the previous math classes I’d taken so I felt both intimidated and nervous about it.   You’d thought I received an A in the class when I received a C as my final grade!  I’d passed and that was more than enough for me! Today I’m still too ignorant of the subject to accurately explain exactly what geometry is (and thank God I never had to utilize it in my field of work)!  I know it has to do with the study of shapes, lines, patterns and  sizes-their properties and how they relate positionally to each other.  I also understand geometry has been and continues to be an integral part of our daily lives as we build, invent, arrange, and design.  Its concepts are utilized everyday by architects, engineers, physicist, designers and builders.

I’m thinking geometry is also evident in creation.  Did you know the Lord strategically placed the earth at just the right distance from the sun and the moon?  I read somewhere that if we were any closer the earth the heat would be unbearable.  And if we were any further away it would be too cold to exist.  We can see geometry in nature when we stop to gaze at the spider’s intricate web or watch a bird patiently design and build its sturdy nest. Both sun and moon affects the ocean’s tide! Have you thought about the fact that every single planet is perfectly round? God created geometry! Have you ever tried to draw a circle free hand-without a compass? How well did that work out for you?  If you’re anything like me, your circle would be either crooked, warped, or both.  But not so for our Lord-HE created everything perfectly good and in order!

Although I’m still not a fan of mathematical geometry I like the order of God’s universe. I believe there’s a positional principle evident in our relationships as well.  I’m convinced that our vertical relationship with God has a direct bearing on our horizontal relationships with others.  A continuous close relationship with the Lord is crucial if we’re to be successful in our horizontal relationship with others.  When we are rightly relating to our God we are more equipped to rightly relate to others. When we have an ongoing, growing, intimate relationship with our Lord we can be victorious in our relationship with others- no matter how challenging and difficult some of them may be.

I recently had a conversation with someone who said “if someone rejects me its easy for me-I just allow myself to be through with them too.”  I agreed that as I grow older I’m learning to accept the choices of those I love even if I desire more out of the relationship. I said it’s easy to respond to rejection with rejection and then just move on. But it’s a different story when you have to accept someone’s rejection and yet decide to continue to love the person. For those whom the Lord has strategically placed in a close position in our lives, this is the way I believe He wants us to respond-with love. He wants us to show the same love to others that He shows to us. We are to love those who hate us and bless those who spitefully use us. (Luke 6:27)  We will not be successful in our interaction with others unless we daily experience true intimacy with God.

STAY IN LOVE WITH THE LORD  

The only way for our finite minds to keep God in the forefront is to constantly remind ourselves of who HE is. We can accomplish this through reading His Word and through Prayer.  We need to communicate daily with our Lord!  Think of it this way: when we read His Word-HE speaks to us; when we pray-we speak to HIM.  The Holy Bible is constantly declaring who He is and His wonderful sacrificial plan for mankind.  Every time you open God’s Word and read it-it should cause you to stand in awe of HIM!  Every time you read Scripture it should remind you of His great love for you! Every time you apply the Logos leaping off the pages to minister to you and your circumstances, your heart should be filled with joy! Time spent reading and meditating on The Word strengthens our faith in God, increases our love for God, and fills us with a joy like no other! When we are in love with Jesus we can’t help but love on others!

Remember and return to your first love!  Remember how you were when you first came to Christ?  Remember how your love for Jesus motivated you to read His Word?  Remember how your heart of gratitude for what He did for you compelled you to spend time in prayer with Him?  Remember how the excitement of the change The Gospel wrought in you, led you to share The Gospel with others?!  We need to be in love with Jesus to properly love others!

I know it’s easy to love some people in our lives (like our children for example).  But what about those we find difficult to love.  What about our dysfunctional family members who are always needy and always find some way to steal our joy and rob us of our peace? What about the nasty, rude, and irritable co-worker who’s always trying to “stab us in the back?”  What about the jealous relative who is willing to think the worse of us in a moments notice? What about that passive aggressive person in our life who jabs us every chance they get all the while refusing to be held accountable for it?  What about that close family member who has a serious addiction?  What about that loved one who just refuses to love us in return? Maybe they love you but just don’t like you and so you always feel rejected by them.  What about that spouse who no longer adores you and who treats you more like you’re his worse enemy than his wife?

How are we to respond to these people and the circumstances attached to them?  Are we called to love those who are difficult to love?  Those we just don’t want to have to love?  Do we have to love those we find too painful to love?  Do we have to love those who can care less whether we love them or not?  Do we have to love those who don’t like us, who hate us, or even despises us?

Yes we do!  We are called to show them the love of Christ.  Remember the cross!  I just recently realized the cross itself perfectly illustrates this principle for us!  The cross is comprised of a vertical line intersected by a horizontal line.  Place yourself at the bottom of that vertical line with God being at the top of it.  Place all the people in your life, all the people you get to interact with and minister to, at each side of the horizontal line.  As we communicate and receive from The Lord, we’re able to give and extend to all those around us.  I can’t draw it here but I hope you get the illustration.

BE FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT  

In order to pour out ourselves to others in a manner that’s pleasing to the Lord we must first be filled with His Spirit.  We must vertically align ourselves under the authority and power of Christ.  When Jesus said “apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5) He meant it!  When the apostle Paul said “in the flesh lies no good thing” (Romans 7:18) he was telling the truth!  The problem is that our relationships are such a natural part of our everyday lives we neglect to realize just how much we need the supernatural power of God operating in us in order to be successful in them.  What I mean by successful is: in order to let them see Christ in us; in order to show them the sacrificial love of Christ; in order to lead some of them to Christ. This relationship thing is serious business!  Once we declare Christ as our Savior, everyone around us is trying to decide whether or not that’s true. They’re looking at how we respond, how we react, how we receive, and how we recover.

The Holy Spirit lives within us but every day we are faced with the choice of submitting to Him or to our own fleshly desires.  Everyday we will either operate out of His strength because we have allowed Him to fill us, or we will operate out of self because we are full of ourselves.  Consider this-the one we “feed” the most is the one that will rule and reign.  If we feed our spirit with the Word of God, we will be more inclined to surrender ourselves to His Spirit.  But if we feed our flesh with the things of the world, we will grieve The Holy Spirit.  We’ll then either struggle with suppressing our flesh or we’ll just simply give in to it. When it comes to those around us, some relationships are just too difficult and challenging to do in and of our own strength.  So we must be filled with the Spirit every single day.

In order to be filled with the Spirit we need to spend time in the Word of God and in Prayer! Are you seeing a certain theme developing?  Yes, once again, it all boils down to having a vibrant relationship with Christ.  Reading The Bible transforms us.  It helps us desire God’s Will over our own will. Spending time in prayer being open, honest, and transparent allows the response of God to powerfully flow in our lives.  As we confess our sins, repent of our trespasses, and express our hopes and desires to God- He changes us.  He renews and refreshes us as He forgives and restores us.  The Word of God “equips us for every good work.” (2nd Timothy 3:17)  We are vertically equipped through His Spirit to horizontally extend the compassion, the love, and the forgiveness others may need from us.  When the Holy Spirit fills us, the overflow blesses others.  His presence in us becomes undeniable and those He’s put in our lives can’t helped being affected for HIM.

Christians sometimes struggle with their interactions with those who don’t know Christ. We set up our own boundaries regarding who we’ll associate with or let in our lives altogether.  We avoid those we don’t understand or those with whose lifestyles we disagree.  We keep them out to ensure we don’t compromise our Christian beliefs and values.  Now I’m not saying we are to be yoked up with those who are of the world. We’re definitely not called to do that.  However we are called to show the love of Christ to them. How do we interact with those whose moral values so greatly differ from ours?  We love them!  We are to show the love of Christ to everyone the Lord allows to cross our path! The Holy Spirit prepares us for our daily encounters.  However, if we’re not filled with the Holy Spirit on a daily basis, we will operate with a serious deficit.  Not being filled means we have nothing to pour out to others.

The problem is we have a tendency to either ignore or greatly dismiss this truth.  We do life with a void which only intimacy with Christ can fill.  Instead of pouring out into the lives of others, we look to others to fill our void.  When they repeatedly fall short, we allow our flesh to rise up. The least little thing can cause us to respond by lashing out instead of being loving.  But this is so unnecessary.  Jesus sent His Holy Spirit to live within each and every believer. He is right there waiting and ready to fill and equip us to be fruitful for Him.  It’s simple.  All we need to do is spend time with and stay close to the Lord.  Through reading His Word and spending time in prayer we can allow His Holy Spirit to fill us to the brim!

God created us for relationship with HIM!  When He created the earth and the fullness thereof everything had a space to inhabit.  The land animals inhabit the land. The sea was created for the sea creatures to inhabit and thrive.  The birds were given wings to soar across the skies. The heavens houses the stars and the planets.  And mankind?  Mankind was created to inhabit HIS REST!  Our vertical relationship with the Lord allows us to be victorious in the lives of others!

HEART TO HEART:  THE CLOSER WE WALK WITH GOD THE MORE WE AFFECT OTHERS FOR CHRIST!