TOTHEUNTAMEDHEART.

Sometimes I think we want God to heal us while we keep our backs toward him. We negotiate, “If you are real, you wouldn’t put us through all of this. & so I’m going to stand here & ask you, if you’re real, to take this all away. Make it all better. But I’m going to keep my back turned toward you because I still don’t believe in you.”

 

 

Sometimes I think this is where we are at as a nation & as a church.

 

 

We never put all of our eggs in one basket. Life is like the stock market, & we gotta spread those stocks out so we’ve only got a little invested in each so we can’t be as easily devastated at loss.

 

 

Today, being a Christian is more political than Christ-like.

 

We want something. Some want to be neutral, just hanging out & going wherever the wind blows & never committing to a solid belief & actually admitting to having that belief. Because we could stir the pot. Some want to be a distorted version of truth, more worried about condemning everyone for their actions & lifestyles. “Hey, God’s doing this because you are a homosexual. Turn or burn.” Some of us don’t know where we are supposed to fit so we sit there unsure of when to fight with people on Facebook & when to let it go.

 

 

Today I read Jeremiah chapter 7:1-11, & there was this one verse that just stirred a lump into my throat & made my mind churn a million different directions, all the while feeling as though every sentence I read was “God wants to heal our nation & church.” My eyes read,

 

“But look, you keep trusting in deceitful words that cannot help.”

| ch7, v8

 

 

& my heart interpreted,

 

 

You keep trusting in cushion & comfortable words to bring healing that only I can bring in Truth. Truth is the only healing serum. The only way we mend deeply. False hopes & promises & words meant as cushions are nothing more than that– fluff– a waste of space that Satan uses to delay true healing.

 

 

But here is where its easy to get caught up in the simple answer, “don’t tell lies.” Truth is so much more. Truth is who God is. He is truth. Which means truth is more than not lying, its the whole aspect of being true to him & who he has created & called us to be. 

 

 

Living in truth means living in love.

Living in truth means living in boldness.

Living in truth means bearing the fruit of the spirit– peace, kindness, self control,…

Living in truth means living how Jesus lived.

 

 

& this is important: boldness & love don’t contradict each other.

 

Verse 11 says,

“Has this house, which bears my name, become a den of robbers in your view?”

 

& my heart interprets God’s cry,

In this building you gather set apart for me & bearing by my name,

are you set apart for me & bearing my name?

 

 

While God is stirring in my heart, telling me he wants to heal our nation, the deeper question is have the people God will use to carry His healing been healed?

 

Becoming more political will not bring healing. Becoming more Christlike will.

 

Time to rid ourselves of borders, friends. Jesus had none. He ate with tax collectors, spoke to a Samaritan woman in a day woman weren’t spoken to, he healed a soldier who came to retrieve him for his death on the cross.

 

 

What drove every move of Jesus’ heart? The Father’s love.

 

 

“So clean house! Make a clean sweep of malice and pretense, envy and hurtful talk. You’ve had a taste of God. Now, like infants at the breast, drink deep of God’s pure kindness. Then you’ll grow up mature and whole in God.”

2 Peter 2:1-3 MSG