Jesus wants more than good deeds. He wants our hearts – The Resevoir
I try and let my morning devotional times be opportunities to let truth set my day, but this morning really made me pause. A devotional I’m reading asked about what a “loveless marriage” looks like. My counseling professors regularly taught us about the warning of being a “married single” – a couple that goes through the motions of a relationship but who don’t have a space for real oneness.
As a kid, I experienced divorce in my own home and in the lives of several friends. I have seen couples who were “married singles” – even some couples who were only recently married. Seeing so many stories of these types of marriages, I try to make it a priority (not always succeeding, but certainly trying) to never be a “married single” and to strive for ongoing and growing oneness in my marriage. It takes work – it doesn’t come easy. Life, work, kids, bills and a million other things, both good and bad, often work against the goal of oneness, and it takes dedication to even attempt to stay connected.
That’s when the devotional thought hit me – a couple that goes through the motions, that may give a gift or offer an act of service occasionally, is missing the most important piece of life together. They are missing that covenant love as their focus. And here’s the part that really kicked me in the gut, the same is true for my relationship with the God of covenant love.
I can get caught up real quick in the motions of relationship with God – go to church, submit my tithe, do a little service project here and there, even read my Bible every day, and they can all be done with no real love. God isn’t longing for just my sacrifices – God is longing for my heart. God is longing for me to be IN relationship with him. God is looking to pour perfect love into me, not just receive some small token that costs very little.
Don’t get me wrong, there have been seasons when I just don’t feel loving or lovable. There are seasons when sitting down to read, or pray, or serve are just plain drudgery, but that’s part of the commitment. It may seem like a duty, but in those moments when I feel so distant it is even more imperative to remind myself of the covenant of love that was given to me. It’s those moments when faith, which isn’t the absence of doubt but the perseverance even in the midst of doubt, has to trump my feelings or emotions. God LOVES me. God has rescued me. God has called me—by name. God wants me and calls me his own. And in those moments when the distractions of life get in the way of that oneness, I get to choose the promises over the feelings.
Almost every Friday, Joy and I have a date. We have lunch. We exercise. We spend time talking and sharing. We discuss our boys and dream for them. We talk about our loved ones spread all over. But above all, we check in and take quality and quantity time together. The same is needed in our relationship with the God of heaven. It’s one of the reasons weekly worship is so important – joining with a community to spend that time with one another and with God changes us, transforms us. But there is so much more than just a once a week check in – for my marriage and for my relationship with God.
I wonder what we could do today to let that covenant promise of God’s love seep into this moment? What could we do to pause, even right now, and be reminded over our emotions that God LOVES you beyond words? Not an act that is mindless or a “going through the motions,” but a pause to remember and soak in a love that has moved heaven and earth so that we could know the whisper of grace and the stillness of peace?
God is more interested in us than we could ever realize—more in love with you than we can know. I think I’m going to take some time and remember that today. Jesus isn’t interested in what we can do for the Kingdom – he loves us more than just that.
2 comments
I have been overwhelmed by God’s presence in my life lately. What a pertinent message, I am here and thankful, praise to God, all glory to God!
These are very sage observations, indeed, Jim. Marriage isn’t just about commitment, but love too, and joy, and in that joy outright laughter and amazement at the futility of our lives without those attributes– love, joy and the acknowledgement of our existence that without both, we’re lost. I’ve often thought of how dangerous it is to become ritualized in our presumed acts of love and kindness. What if the rich man who walled himself off from Lazarus and the rest of the world had finally recognized that he was refusing to accept the reality of Lazarus and his suffering and had offered him just one simple meal? My guess is that if he had done that, Jesus would not have told that parable. The point I make is that the rich man wasn’t called to establish an entire agenda of life-supporting deeds to help Lazarus. All Jesus wanted him to do was show mercy and compassion. Programs like the Red Cross didn’t just spring up overnight. They came together after one person saw a human need and filled it, then gathered others together to help until a great organization grew to serve the needs of many. That’s why the rolling out of the Kingdom of God os a progressive, ongoing process. But it all begins with a simple recognition that within us that we can help someone, and that recognition is the spark of love. Like Paul said, “Faith, hope and charity abide these three, and the greatest of these is love.” And it’s from love that mercy flows to other, but the remnant left with us is joy.