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Guard Your Heart "For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." - Jeremiah 2:13. In Jeremiah's day, cisterns were underground reservoirs where rain water was collected for use. Eventually the mud settled at the bottom of the cisterns and the clear upper layers could be used as a source of drinking water. Perhaps this metaphor brings to our mind non-believers who are vainly trying to quench their spiritual thirst by drinking from the world's cisterns. The Samaritan woman who met Jesus beside Jacob's well is a good example of the human inclination to look for fulfillment and love "in all the wrong places." However this divine message, delivered through the prophet Jeremiah, was addressed to God's people. Despite all that the Lord had done to free them from slavery and lead them out of Egypt to the land of milk and honey, His people eventually forsook the fountain of living waters "to drink the waters of the Nile." (Jeremiah 2:18). Egypt and the Nile are metaphors for the world and what it has to offer. Like the Israelites, we too have experienced the goodness of the Lord. And like them, we are inclined to forsake the fountain of living waters and to hew for ourselves broken cisterns that can hold no water. Thankfully, God is constantly calling us back to Himself. And in this passage He reminds us, once again, that what the world has to offer cannot satisfy the deepest yearnings of our hearts.
Change of Heart But the fact that His people had hewn for themselves broken cisterns was merely a symptom of a deeper problem. God was grieved because His people had "forsaken the devotion of (their) youth and the love of (their) betrothals." (Jeremiah 2:2). Having forsaken their first love, any efforts to keep their adulterous passions in check became an exercise in futility. Their self-destructive behavior merely exposed what had already occurred internally - a change of heart and affections. When I first gave my heart to Jesus, I naively assumed that I would never again have to deal with the issue of my love and commitment to Him. Since then I've come to realize that there is a need for constant vigilance: "Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life." (Proverbs 4:23). The Hebrew word for heart (leb) refers to more than just our feelings; it is taken from a root word that is best translated "the inner man" - which embodies the mind, will and emotions. Why did the writer of Proverbs exhort us to "post a guard" over our hearts? Because our hearts are prone to misplaced affections. And when the integrity of our inner being is breached, it threatens our emotional, mental and spiritual viability. Sometimes the things that diminish our passion for God are "good" things that are not sinful or wrong in and of themselves - which is why it is easy to be caught off guard. Recently, I received a letter from an outstanding Christian leader and a dear brother in Christ, who noticed an irony in his own spiritual life: The busier he was in serving God through various leadership positions, the less intimacy he experienced in his relationship with Christ. Having been there myself, I understood what he was talking about. Countless others have lost their passion for God on the altar of their profession, motivated either by a desire to serve humanity or simply out of a need to feed their own egos. Like Martha, we become caught up in our service for its own sake. We forget that true service (which, by the way, is derived from the same root word as worship), is an outward expression of our love and devotion to God. And because it is something which flows from a heart that is in tune with God's heart, it is never self-driven.
First Love "I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot endure evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name's sake, and have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have left your first love." - Revelations 2:2-4. How was it that the church in Ephesus could toil and persevere in the Lord's work, stand up against evil in their day, be vigilant against false doctrine, and endure persecution for His name's sake, only to discover in the end that God was not pleased with them? Because in the final analysis, the heart of the issue is the issue of the heart. The one thing that God had against the church in Ephesus was the fact that they had left (not lost) their first love. God has promised that He will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). So whenever our love relationship with the Lord begins to grow cold, it is always because somewhere along the way we have moved away from Him. In my experience, this is rarely a conscious decision or a willful act of abandonment. Instead, we give our hearts away a piece at a time, often without even realizing what is happening. Gradually, our love for God diminishes. Service to God and to others becomes a heavy burden. In time we may even become totally apathetic to the things of God, unless He graciously intervenes in our lives - and He will if we ask Him to.
Starting Over If we recognize that this is what has happened to us, how can we start over? How do we go about restoring our spiritual passion? God's prescription for restoration is simply this: "Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first." (Revelations 2:5). The first step in personal spiritual revival is to humble ourselves before God and repent. Repentance means a change in attitude which should result in a change of behavior: There must be a willingness to walk away from our love affair with the world. A period of relative obscurity and insulation from the pressures of public opinion may be helpful. We do this not to withdraw from the world, but to draw near to God (James 4:8) so that we can give Him our undivided attention. And in drawing near to God, His Spirit will rekindle our love for Him if we "do the deeds we did at first." As in any other love relationship, our relationship with God is a romance sustained by discipline; we cannot have one without the other. Romance is nurtured by the discipline of spending regular time with the One we love. We sit in His presence and gaze at His wonderful face. We observe His mysterious ways and marvel at His love and wisdom. We listen to His gentle voice and share with Him the deepest secrets of our heart. We read His love letters over and over again until we know them by heart. We find out what He is interested in, and join with Him in doing them until we learn to love what He loves. And then one day, we will discover that once again we are in love. And Jesus, the Lover of our soul, is once again the most important Person in our life! n
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