Tag Archives: soul

Win over the heart

 

Love & The Outcome – King Of My Heart

 

Not a single soul—be it a student, disciple, parishioner, devotee, son, or daughter—could ride our coattails to glory. “If you are wise, you are wise for yourself.”

If you are wise, you are wise for yourself;
if you scoff, you alone will bear it. – Proverbs 9:12  ESV

So it happens in my heart – change, wisdom and growing into the character of God.  This is where I need to spend time – with my heart.

If all who laboured for the conversion of others were to introduce them immediately into Prayer and the Interior Life, and make it their main design to gain and win over the heart, numberless as well as permanent conversions would certainly ensue. On the contrary, few and transient fruits must attend that labour which is confined to outward matters; such as burdening the disciple with a thousand precepts for external exercises, instead of leaving the soul to Christ by the occupation of the heart in Him. – A Short and Easy Method of Prayer – Madame Guyon

I was reading about Jesus’ ability to see the importance of the heart.

Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side.  And a scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”  And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”  Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.” – Matthew 8:18  ESV

Jesus liked leaving crowds or at least withdrawing from them. If He was going to change the world, why would He be leaving the opportunity? Therein lays our mistake that many fall into today. Jesus was not trying to gain an audience; His primary task was to prepare an army. He wasn’t even looking for a following; He was really interested in forging followers. He was looking for disciples, not only the ones who listened but the one who wanted to become like Him. The journey of a follower experiences confusion, amazement, bewilderment, astonishment, testing, saving, breaking, encouragement, being exposed, and protection. How many want to be followed by such an individual? That is what it takes for commitment, it is what the journey looks like when we are going to live to share Jesus’ life with others and teach them how to live it.

When we realise what the journey looks like, we might say we are not too sure we want to start such a journey. That’s OK. It just means that we have come to realise that we cannot be a disciple in our own strength.

Jesus understood this with the two men in the verse above. He wants to see where my heart is.

 

 

 

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Live now

 

LEAD KINDLY LIGHT/BLESSED JOHN HENRY NEWMAN

 

The Israelites had something special as they started their journey towards home – they had the presence of God and were led by Him across the desert.

And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. – Exodus 13:21  ESV

Our prayers as followers of God has had these requests for God to continue to lead us with His light and His truth. We know in them we will have eternal life.

Send out your light and your truth;
let them lead me;
let them bring me to your holy hill
and to your dwelling! – Psalm 43:3  ESV

Jesus kept the call alive by illustrating that He in fact was that light and whoever follows Him will have eternal life.

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” – John 8:12  ESV

I am challenged by Jesus as to what it means to be a disciple. First of all, He is my light and I follow. I will conduct my life as if I am in the kingdom of God now and not of this world. Because of that decision, I will no longer live in my past, my darkness, but rather will leave behind my ignorance, guilt and sin. I live now for Jesus.

Then Jesus gives me His Spirit to so that I can bear witness to the fact that I am indeed a child of God. With His light comes life.

Phineas Fletcher – speaking of the conversion of a soul to God, he says: –

“New Light new Love, new Love new Life hath bred;

A Life that lives by Love, and loves by Light:

A Love to him, to whom all Loves are wed;

A Light, to whom the sun is darkest night:

Eye’s Light, heart’s Love, soul’s only Life he is:

Life, soul, love, heart, Light, eye, and all are his:

He eye, Light, heart, Love, soul; He all my joy and bliss.”

Purple Island, Can. I. v. 7.

When Jesus says – I am the light of the world – it’s as if that one short sentence gathers all of His work and nature in one thought. It actually is shorter than that for – I am – is where it all lands. All of my experiences, as fragmented as they may seem, all draw together and come together with a sense of bringing me into the presence of Jesus. Hearing it, I am filled with strength and purpose and in it I find all my future experiences getting their meaning from it.

This life I live now continues. So I live now, in the action and presence of God with His people.

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