The Heart of God
Since Valentine's and Family day were not that long ago, it seemed like a good time to focus on God’s love and heart for each of us and to remember God’s heart for families. As we sit together at tables as one big VE family to share meals, I'm reminded that God wants us to sit at His table to talk with Him, enjoy His company, and His words. God wants us to have a heart for Him, too, and tells us to seek and find God with all our hearts in Jeremiah 29 verse 13.
In Deuteronomy 6 verses 5 to 7, God tells us to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”
When my sisters and I were younger, my parents would always get us talking about our day by asking us at supper to share something that was hard about our day and then something good that we were thankful for that day. It was a good way to figure out what we could pray about and talk to God as a family, too.
My youngest sister remembers the time when we prayed for a neighbor boy and her classmate who had not had a “green” day at school after months of being in class. There had not been a day when he didn’t get into trouble, so we started to pray for him to have a good day at school. A month later…..what seemed impossible actually happened. He finally had his good “green” day! God heard and answered my family's prayer.
My sisters and I don’t need dinner prompts anymore because we all have way too much to say, but remembering our table time talks is a good pattern for my conversations with God. When life is hard we can talk to God, and we can always thank Him for the things that go well. God cares about what we think and experience. He has a heart for you and me, and we, in turn, need to have a heart for God.
This past month, I’ve been studying the life of David, who is known as a man after God’s own heart. We are to be like that too.
He trusted God so much that he knew God would protect him when he went out to fight the giant, Goliath.
He loved God so much that he was willing to wait for God’s timing to be king.
He wanted to talk with God so much that he wrote song after song to worship Him.
Even though David had a lot of times when he failed, David still knew the importance of praising God. We can see that in the Psalms he wrote.
Because he loved God, David reached out to find Jonathan’s children, particularly Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth was Jonathan’s son and had been badly injured as a young boy trying to escape the fortress when news of King Saul and Jonathan’s death came, leaving him unable to walk.
I love the story of Mephibosheth and David in 2 Samuel 9. Not just because I can relate to the fact he was unable to walk, but because Mephibosheth honored David’s invitation even when he was unsure of what to expect. That is a picture of us. When David saw the fear in Mephibosheth’s heart, he said to him, “Don’t be afraid. I asked for you because I want you to come sit at my table. Let us be in friendship with one another, like I was with your father, Jonathan.” David looked past Mephibosheth’s broken parts, broken feet, broken family, disappointments, hurts and fears to see Mephibosheth, son of his best friend.
God wants to do the same with us. He invites us to sit with Him, talk with Him, listen to Him, feel supported and feel loved by Him. He loves us so much He gave His son Jesus to die for us because He understands that we all have broken parts, too. Maybe your heart got hurt, your dreams haven’t come true, or you feel stressed and discouraged. But just like Jesus invited his disciples to sit and share a meal and conversation with Him at the table, He asks each of us to do that too, because God wants to:
Help us deal with our disappointments and the times we feel rejected.
Help us with our hurts and our fears.
Help us when we are sad and when we are excited.
May we be families who, and may our VE family, love the Lord our God with all our hearts and with all our souls and with all our strength. May we write God’s words on our hearts and talk about them at home and as we travel, as we rest and as we live each day.
