“The Friend of Our Hearts”

"The Friend of Our Hearts"       

    

   

   The so-called Information Age has led to great progress in knowledge and understanding of the world, resulting in exponentially enhanced technology that makes our lives more comfortable and more in jeopardy.  Never has the human race possessed such capacity to achieve great things for the benefit of multitudes, while at the same time drawing near to the possibility of broad scale destruction.  

   "And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.  And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.  And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do" (Genesis 11:4-6).

    "And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved" (Matthew 24:22).

   The benefit of unlimited communication leads to the inevitability of utter destruction in a race of beings characterized by rejection of the living and true God.  Thus, the Lord confounded the languages at Babel in order to save humanity from the pride of accomplishment, and the peril of annihilation.  He will also do the same in times to come when  when yet again we figuratively possess one language and are thus able to unrestrictedly communicate with one another.  Indeed, good certainly occurs when human beings more and more communicate.  Were it not for the Lord, however, our long term prospects, based on the same opportunity for discourse, would lead to utter catastrophe.

   Why is this so?  The answer is actually simple.  We were made for communication first and foremost with God.  Our progenitors in the garden of Eden rejected such a wondrous gift, Eve listening to Satan, and Adam hearing and obeying Eve rather than the Lord (Genesis 3:1-17).  Thus, at the very outset of our existence, the human race fell away from the primary relationship and fellowship for which our Heavenly Father made us.  We seek association and socialization with people more than with Him.  Of course, we have problems communicating with each other, and still find varying forms of fig leaves whereby we hide ourselves from people.  This does not compare, however, with our flight into the trees wherein we seek to escape from God.  "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have every one turned to His own way" (Isaiah 53:6).  This results in disaster within our hearts both personally corporately as we fail to devote ourselves to the One whose Voice must be the one to which we are most inclined.

    Salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ redeems us from our personal flight from God.  "Ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls" (I Peter 2:25).  The new birth makes possible the experience of God serving as the primary relationship to which we avail ourselves   It is not inevitable in this lifetime that we will access such grace, and Christians must determinedly apply ourselves to the communion with our Lord that fills and fulfills our hearts.  In Christ, God gives to us Himself - "I am with you always" (Matthew 28:20).  Our Father becomes the indwelling Friend of our hearts through the presence of the Holy Spirit.  This is life, the Life of our lives, and this is the communication that must become primary in our consciousness.  Indeed, only God can be with us always.  This fact alone should tell us that He made us first and foremost for loving fellowship with Him.  What a gift, and what a calling to realize and access the wonder of communion with the Friend of our hearts in His Word, by His Spirit, and wonderfully, with each other as the primary relationship with Him leads to proper relationship with each other.

"When Thou saidst, Seek ye My face; my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek"

(Psalm 27:8)

"And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart."

(Jeremiah 29:13)

Weekly Memory Verse 

    Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

(Romans 6:11)