ALL YOUR HEART: THE DESIRE TO BE WHOLE

All Your Heart, All Your Soul: The Work of Restoration and Why it Matters

Part Two: THE DESIRE TO BE WHOLE

Restoration is the road to loving God with all hearts. It begins with salvation and starting our new life in him. It continues from there into every area of our lives. It is ongoing. It takes us from infancy in Christ to maturity in Christ. It will take humility. Humility is to restoration what gasoline is to fire. The desire to love the Lord with all our hearts, soul, mind, and strength is fueled once we admit we can’t do it in our strength. The Lord cannot refuse a humble heart (Psalm 51, James 4).

I want to use embers as an analogy. For me, they represent the desire to love the Lord with all our hearts. It goes beyond lip service (Isaiah 29:13) and gets us to no longer I who live but Christ in me (Galatians 2:20).

Embers are pieces of wood that have been consumed by fire. The outer has burned off, but the inner is hot. Embers are not the bonfire, the blaze, the wild, the show stopper. They are the lowly remains of firewood that has lost its ability to hold itself together. They glow, and they radiate heat. They can ignite things and are sensitive to wind and breath, but embers are completely consumed.

A piece of wood that has no strength remaining in itself is a picture of our hearts when we let the All Consuming Fire have his way. It’s when our worship, our life of worship, has put everything on the altar—every strength, impulse, inclination, every imagination, dream, every calling, pleasure, yearning—everything—so that what remains is new life. If the fire goes out, only ashes are left. Ashes are not without hope, but embers, the ones who burn with desire to love the Lord, are ready for the breath of the Spirit and are alive with the life of Jesus.

Okay. I’m aware this may seem intense. You may be wondering about the rejoicing part. Yes! Restoration is amazing. There is freedom like no other when the Lord restores us and our circumstances. Joy unspeakable! But the process of restoration deals with the nitty-gritty, the injustices, the stench of sin, etc. We have to be willing, we have to have the desire to let God consume the wages of sin affecting us so we can live by the Spirit of Life (Romans 8). So with the liberation and lightness of restoration, there is a holy fire.

Our initial experience of love and response of gratitude from and to God is not enough to keep the embers of devotion burning. Our brokenness is an obstacle, hindrance, an obstruction to our desire to love the Lord with all our hearts. Remembering that restoration is being turned again to Christ and it is the road to loving him all our hearts. (See part 1.)

I mentioned ashes earlier. Every fireplace or altar has ashes and they are trouble. They want to bury embers alive. I think it’s interesting that part of priestly duties in the Old Testament was to remove ashes from the altar (Leviticus 6, Numbers 4). Ashes weren’t allowed to pile up in the place for sacrifices. If our desire to love the Lord is like an ember, then our pain (any grievous way) is like ash. Our desire to love the Lord has a potential risk of being buried, to succumbing to dusty remains if we aren’t attending the fire of heart. That is part of a lifestyle of worship.

Are ashes beyond the Lord’s help? No! He makes beautiful crowns out of ashes (Isaiah 61:3). But that glorious subject is for another blog series. What we are talking about now is keeping the embers of devotion burning. The desire to love the Lord with all our hearts, soul, mind, and strength has to be present and radiating. That gets us back to humility. Humility says I can’t do this on my own. I need you, Lord. And with that small, weak admittance, our feet turn towards God, and he has room to do restorative work.

While we are on the subject, pride is another enemy to our desire to love the Lord. Nothing puts out a fire quicker than water. Nothing cools off a burning heart for the Lord faster than pride. But humility fans the flame every time. Once brokenness is acknowledged, even as we are in progress, the desire to love God is strengthened. That’s what we want.

Don’t let pain and pride snuff out your desire to love the Lord. Maybe I’ll have t-shirts printed: Don’t get snuffed out.

Love is active. To love God with all we’ve got is a decision we make, invest in, commit to, and walk out. And there are many distractions, in addition to brokenness, vying for our love.

How do we feed the embers of devotion?

• Let the Holy Spirit search us daily for grievous ways. Repent and keep drawing closer to God.
• Gaze on the beauty of the Lord daily. Bask in his presence.
• Eat from the Word of God daily. It is righteous.

These things add up to having a secret place* with God. From there, we put his word and likeness into action all around us.

All is a tiny word but huge in meaning. All. Not half, not some, not the best parts, or the leftovers. All our hearts, all our souls, all our strength, all our minds. It’s a big ask. But God is a jealous God. And I’m learning that halfhearted love isn’t love. It may be a good intention, definitely an obligation, guilt perhaps, and a lot of other lesser motivators. But that’s not what God asked for. He didn’t ask for obligation. He asked for all our hearts.

When I talk about all our hearts, I am not talking about living perfectly and never sinning. We are all in moving towards maturity in Christ and it is a life full of grace! This is about the desire to love him the way he asks us to. Hearts burning for him aren’t without troubles. Rather, they are being consumed with Jesus’ life.

In the next segment, we will talk about why we can trust a God who asks for so much. But since Resurrection Sunday is this week, I’ll give you a spoiler. Because…

God loves us that way. He gave his son because he loves us. Jesus gave his blood to reconcile us (turn us) back to the Father. Not some of his blood. All of it drained out so we could be set free from sin. He loves us with all he is. He provides a way for us to love him with all we are.

Recap: Restoration is needed to love the Lord with all hearts. Humility, the willingness to ask for help, fuels the embers of our hearts allowing the desire to love the Lord to radiate—to burn within us–and it protects our heart from being snuffed out by pain and pride. Jesus, turn us again towards you and your ways.

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*Secret Place: We get the term secret place from Psalm 91 and from Jesus’ life. He often withdrew to a secret place to pray. It is taking the time to not only commune with God but cling to him. The secret place is fueled by thanksgiving, praise, and remembering what God has done in our lives so far. And it’s looking to him in the present and for the future to be just as faithful. We can do nothing apart from him (John 15).

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