Keep on Coming

Therefore also now, says the Lord, turn and keep on coming to Me with all your heart…
Joel 2:12a AMP

This is the beginning of my life word from the Lord, given to me when I was first born again. I’ve talked about it before, but I have new insight from the Holy Spirit now and it’s awesome. As I’ve emphasized above, the key phrase is “keep on coming to Me with all your heart.”

One of the first things that Martha taught me was to be completely honest with God. That sounds easy, but I had a hard time with it at first. I was terribly awkward and unnatural with Him. It felt like I’d forgotten how to speak! Also, there were some heart-truths that I just couldn’t bring to Him. Even knowing that He already knew, I just couldn’t seem to say it to Him unless I’d confessed it to Martha first. I basically needed permission to be gut-level honest. Not a great start, huh?

I kept at it though. I purposed to be honest with Him about everything, so I started really talking to Him. It was easy for me to be grateful and excited when wonderful things happened, or to cry out to Him in times of crisis, but I struggled to talk to Him in the boring or frustrating times. And that’s a lot of the time sometimes! It felt weird and forced, but I kept on talking and gradually it got better. Still, not once did it occur to me that this was part of what it means to “keep on coming to [God] with ALL your heart.”

Why am I telling you all of this? Because coming to God in total honesty isn’t just doctrinal or some sort of foundational discipline—it bears real, unparalleled fruit. I’ll talk about what that fruit was on Monday, but for now, let me assure you that without the early awkward conversations (“Morning, God! How’s the weather in heaven? It really stinks down here. Catch You later!”) and terrifying blurts of awful truth, that fruit simply would not BE.

I now KNOW that being honest with God directly affects my personal healing, my new revelations of who He really is, my spiritual growth, and the strength of our relationship. It’s not a small thing to open up and let Him in. In fact, there were days where that was all I was capable of actually doing. And it wasn’t in vain. It was a single brick in the foundation. Unimpressive on its own, perhaps, but vital to the work God’s doing in me. In all of us! So go ahead. Tell God a secret. Tell Him a joke. Ask about the weather. Just take a step toward Him, open and willing. It’s not a small thing, I promise.

Therefore also now, says the Lord, turn and keep on coming to Me with all your heart…[until every hindrance is removed and the broken fellowship is restored].