Comforting and Frightening

05.22.14

1 Kings 8.39 39 ...then hear from heaven, your dwelling place. Forgive and act; deal with everyone according to all they do, since you know their hearts (for you alone know every human heart)... (NIV)

Kind of comforting and kind of frightening all at the same time – God’s knowing our hearts, that is. How can someone know every human heart? I don’t know but I know it is true. We must not consider God as some elevated human – He alone is far above that. And God has the capacity to know our hearts: each and every one of them. He alone.

The comfort is if He knows, then He’ll act. The fright is if He knows, then He’ll act. The comfort is He acts on behalf of His people. I tend to believe that He acts faithfully even when I’ve been unfaithful. There is something comforting and frightening about that as well. I need to know and need to tell myself over and over and over again, that He is faithful and He desires only good for me.

God desires that place in my heart where He is free to rule without my unruliness. And that freedom comes when I submit to His presence and will. And as much as I believe in freewill, I stop short of thinking it some kind of Kryptonite that will disable God in His efforts. Unruly freewill is a Kryptonite that kills my relationship with Someone who so desires goodness and perfection in my being and life. I lose when I let my freewill off its leash.

God knows my heart and knows what it will take to transform a broken, fallen creature like me. And I think what God really desires is just my cooperation; my complete, total, and fearless cooperation. I think it boils down to that. I think it boils down to my cooperating with One who is so infinitely beyond me but so infinitely desires to be my Friend. What a Friend we have in Jesus.

I seem to be into motivational thoughts these days. I’ve happened across the Zig Ziglar Facebook page and find myself thinking about the motivational thoughts and sayings that are displayed there. I have a slideshow on my desktop that shows each thought in a picture that flashes on my monitor for 15 seconds. I watch them and think about them and try to act upon them. One favorite thought is this: Today is a Good Day to have a Good Day.

Since God knows my heart and has chosen to live there, it is a good day. It’s a comforting day and also a frightening one all at the same time: God, what are You up to today?

Another favorite thought is this: Tomorrow is another chance. Tomorrow is what comes after today; and though it never really comes, it morphs into today as each moment passes. It is another opportunity to live with the One who knows my heart and has chosen it as His home. Kind of comforting and frightening – all at the same time.

Father, may I live in Your presence today as You live in mine. Help me to cooperate with You and to value the thought that You know all my thoughts. May I live in faithfully and fearlessly in the balance of comfort and fear; and live submissively to You in the process. You alone know every human heart. Amen.