How Is The Hole In Your Heart Being Filled?
Good Morning Friends,
I live in Southwest Florida and one of the ways that has been suggested for me to pray is to go to the beach to experience a sunset and the healing repetition of the waves as love washing away sin. Feels a little like meditation. Still I like to go to the beach. And sometimes when I am there I see the ghost crabs darting in and out of their holes. They are so fearful. What is interesting is that when a storm and high tide comes, like last week, those holes they hide in are filled over as if they never existed. So too for the sand castles dug by the children. The size of the hole does not matter very much. All are washed away clean like the hole of sin in our lives… covered when God forgives us. So, How Is The Hole In Your Heart Being Filled?
Scripture: On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
Mark 4:35-41 (NRSV)
Then the LORD answered Job from the whirlwind: “Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorant words? Brace yourself like a man, because I have some questions for you, and you must answer them. “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you know so much. Who determined its dimensions and stretched out the surveying line? What supports its foundations, and who laid its cornerstone as the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy? “Who kept the sea inside its boundaries as it burst from the womb, and as I clothed it with clouds and wrapped it in thick darkness? For I locked it behind barred gates, limiting its shores. I said, ‘This far and no farther will you come. Here your proud waves must stop!’
Job 38:1-11 (NLT)
Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
1 Corinthians 2:14 (NRSV)
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Luke 12:34 (NRSV)
Message: Job reminds us that God speaks to us through storms! And if you don’t think a big one is brewing right now think again. Job was a man who experienced devastating storms in his own life that included the total loss of his property, family, health, and reputation. The storms threatened to unravel his faith and his relationship with God. Worry and stress and guilt were ready to fill his heart. And then God spoke to Job out of the storm and revealed Himself to Job. God reminded Job of His power. God reminded Job that God is ruler over nations and nature… sovereign…that God has absolute authority over everything and everyone. Job’s response was to bow in worship as he accepted the storms God had allowed in his life. So too the Bible tells us that there is a God-shaped vacuum in our hearts. There is a hole in our hearts that only God can fill. What I think happened with Job and happens with us too, through the storms of life, is that God smooths over the holes and fills them with forgiveness and love. You see God wants to live inside of us but when our life is filled with other things, there’s no room in our hearts for God. That is where the storms of life come in for they have a way of starting things anew. They fill up the holes in our hearts like those on the beach. Big holes…small holes…it does not matter. Wave after wave will smooth it over as if the holes had never existed. So friends know this, that failure is not final. If you are grieving something in your life, if you have ever messed up something so royally that you want to crawl into a hole, know that God is always waiting to forgive…that His mercies are enduring… that He specializes in using our hearts to contain God. The storm is coming. Be prepared. Have faith. Submit to God. Let God fill up the holes because our tendency is to fill them with the wrong things.
Pray we are filled with expectancy of being changed. Pray for those who think they are going under. Pray to the Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord Almighty that His glory cleanses us. Pray He empowers us to breathe in His life giving spirit… to drink from the well spring of life. Pray we be humbled in the merciful gift of life. Pray we find peace in the storms of life. Pray we encourage each other in faith. Pray that we keep on living. Pray that we recognize the hope when Jesus is with us. Pray God covers over the holes in our life. Pray we find peace in the storms of life. Pray that our prayers are as regular as the waves on the shoreline. Pray we are renewed. Pray we realize that we need to let God fill our hearts.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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