“…‘Then I will cause Him to draw near and he shall approach Me; For who is this who pledged his heart to approach Me?’ says the Lord.” (Jer 30:21, NKJ)
Humankind has always hungered for God – it has just not always been definable or tangible. It’s rather like mercury which you try to contain, but it eludes you continuously. With time, the natural man has tried, with his natural senses, to satiate the void in his spirit, but to no avail. 1 Cor 2:14 spells it out clearly: “The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him.”
Over the course of time we very often fill this gap in our spirit-man with all that is not-God (Deut 32:17). Because we are unfulfilled in ourselves, we long for and desire something that will saturate us, make us whole, complete us, but our means to do this is driven totally by our soul dimensions and our senses. Thus it cannot be other than earthly, sensual (determined by the senses) and demonic (James 3:15).
At best, the heart of man is deceitful says Jer 17:9, in other words: your own heart lies to you and presents you with something you will believe is sufficient: may it be money, success, education, work, pleasure, knowledge, a family, social upliftment, or whatever.
But the heart is an idol factory and as quickly as your spirit-man shows an inkling of its need for God, so quickly does your heart fill it with a deceiving alternative. Despite what you have chased after and achieved, your spirit still seeks for the One for whom we actually long. “You have made us for yourself, O Lord,” Augustine prayed, “and our heart is restless until it rests in you”.
We are like the disciples who walked with Him on their way to Emmaus but did not recognise Him. “And they said to one another, ‘Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road…?’” (Luke 24:32). If you react to His call that says: “Come home,” and you repent, there will be many voices that come to you and want to convince you of the opposite. Only be convinced by what is burning in your heart.
- Sela: Os Guinness says: “When something more than human seeking is needed if seeking is to be satisfied, then calling means that seekers themselves are sought.” Secure your burning heart with God.
- Read: Gen 8; Ps 8; John 8.
- Memorise: John 8:32 and the whole of Psalm 8.
