Is Your Heart Tuned to God?
Remember who you are because of Christ. You are not what you do. You are a beloved child of God–a God who knows you deeply and invites you into meaningful, wonderful friendship.
There is an old hymn by Robert Robertson that starts like this:
Come, thou Fount of every blessing;
tune my heart to sing thy grace;
streams of mercy, never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise.
I feel these words deeply because I realize how quickly my heart goes out of tune in a world of distraction. The pressure of running my own business, the grind of daily obligations, and the tug to accomplish more weigh heavy on my mind. I resonate especially with the lyrics of verse 3, which states: "Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love."
Perhaps you feel this wandering in your heart today. You feel it because the Christian life can be difficult. To quote (yet again) the words of my friend Daniel Henderson, "The hardest part of the Christian life is that it is so daily."
Two weeks ago, my family had the chance to spend a few days in Maui (shoutout to Janan, who is a travel guru).
As I sat overlooking the ocean one evening, I spent a few moments reading Williams Barry's A Friendship Like No Other, where he writes, "I have become convinced that the best analogy for the relationship God wants with us is friendship."[1]
Some days, I feel like a pretty bad friend. I'm prone to wander. I'm prone to find my identity in what I do rather than who I am in Christ. I'm prone to think that God's offer of friendship doesn't apply. And I'm increasingly aware that the enemy of my soul tends to hit in ways we are most vulnerable. To this point, Barry writes,
If I am prone to self-doubt, my self-doubt will be the evil spirit's point of attack every time I feel close to God. I will wonder if I am fooling myself to think that God wants my friendship or that I could have discerned the spirits rightly, even though everything seems to be moving in the right direction. If I have a tendency to find self-confidence only when I am working, then anytime I take time for myself, even when it is necessary for my health, I may feel some anxiety, and I will begin to question my actions. [1]
So what is the answer for you, for me?
It's to tune our hearts to God's voice. It's to search for him with our whole heart (Jer. 29:13), to take delight in him (Psa. 37:4), and draw near to him (Jam. 4:8). It's to count him as our closest friend.
But How Do We Do This?
If your heart is wandering today, take a few moments right now to pause. Set aside your distractions–those things that pull you to run at an unsustainable pace–and spend 10, 20, or even 60 minutes retuning your heart. A great place to start is Ephesians 1, which says:
3 Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him. 5 He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace that he lavished on us in the Beloved One.
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace 8 that he richly poured out on us with all wisdom and understanding. 9 He made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he purposed in Christ 10 as a plan for the right time—to bring everything together in Christ, both things in heaven and things on earth in him.
Remember who you are because of Christ. You are not what you do. You are a beloved child of God–a God who knows you deeply and invites you into meaningful, wonderful friendship.
Miss this, and you're prone to wander. Recognize this, and life takes on tremendous clarity and purpose.
[1] Barry, William A.. A Friendship Like No Other: Experiencing God's Amazing Embrace (Function). Kindle Edition.
[2] Ibid.
