Mining My Heart’s Direction

Someone recently commented on one of my posts and I thought I would write a response to bring further clarification on a point I made. They said:

“In what measure and how does God value me through my loves?”

The initial blog was entitled Penny for the Plate and was actually written as a response to Jennifer’s posts and process.

The point I am making is from something I’ve learned of God through His dealings with me.  It is not that God values my idols but He does treasure the passion and energies I exert to pursue them.  Because I lay heart-focus and intensity in pursuing things outside of Him, He often uses this same passion to lead me like cattle down the chute to capture me.

Like a moth to the flame, we are drawn to many things posing as light.  God, who is Light, utilizes our direction to seize us.  God is humble, patient and determined.  He will have what is His.  And where does He tend to find His wayward treasure? On a path of apparent descent!

I believe Ezekiel 14 speaks of this process:

Therefore speak to them and tell them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: When any of the Israelites set up idols in their hearts and put a wicked stumbling block before their faces and then go to a prophet, I the Lord will answer them myself in keeping with their great idolatry. I will do this to recapture the hearts of the people of Israel, who have all deserted me for their idols.’

Fallen man runs hard after what we feel will give us fulfillment.  I contend to not be surprised if you find God waiting for you on the path.  He orchestrates all things to bring us to Himself, even our wayward wanderings.

Now, He doesn’t tempt us with evil, James 1 is clear about this.  Rather, He addresses us in our idolatrous places. At the end of the day, God does not cherish my idolatry or loves before Him, but He does apprehend me on my highway to hell.

As proof, read Psalm 139.  It is about a Lord who is well acquainted with me, able to find me in all my ways.  Look at verse 8: “If I ascend up into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.”

I just have learned to put more stock in God’s ability to keep and guide me, over my ability to escape.  He tracks veins like a gold miner looking for my heart.  Address me with religious platitudes and I will walk on by, but He arrests me at the point of my love, even false . . . there is the mother lode.  He values ME and uses the direction of my heart to direct me to Himself.  No, Jennifer’s love of cigarettes was not God-given, but God sure is using this heart direction to guide her to Himself.  She, somewhere in her heart, has said yes and now He is performing the task to put her on His ground.

Dear commenter: He seeks our loves because that is where our heart is. God meets me on my ground to bring me to His ground.