Tender Heart

Keep Your Heart Tender Toward God

My cousins and I loved the Care Bears so much when we were little that we actually wore out the Care Bear video to the point that you could barely seen the screen and the music was all scratchy and wobbly. I always felt like we were our own version of the Care Bear Cousins. I especially loved Tender Heart, who always had a smile, a gentle word and a kind manner about him. Kids, more than anyone, appreciate that kind, mild-mannered gentle tenderness embodied so poignantly in Jesus... who said, "Let the children come to me."

Well, He still wants His children to come to Him with the tender heart He has modeled... In keeping our hearts tender toward God, we are able to discern and follow His call, obey His commands and speak His word and message with our lips and our lives.


And Follow His Call

I alone am left; and they seek to take my life. —1 Kings 19:10

The reading in the ODB today tells the story of Elijah. He was ready to give up, so ready in fact that he kept trying to quit. But, God wouldn't let him. It's funny, because it's after Elijah has already done so much... but he becomes afraid of Queen Jezebel's threats, as we often fear so many things of this world and forget that God is so much bigger than any of that.

It's kind of funny in fact. It's like if you'd try to fire an employee, but they keep coming back to work the next day. Or if you try to break up with a boyfriend, but they keep calling you or stopping by to talk. Elijah wanted to give up on God, but God wasn't ready to give up on Elijah. And in such an instance, isn't it wonderful to know who always wins out.

But the idea here is that Elijah felt lost, felt incapable, because he had lost sight of the fact that he was in God's sight, that God made him capable. Elijah's heart had become less tender, less flexible or less able to be molded by the Potter's hand. So, he ran far away. Only later did his heart soften... when he again recognized God with all his heart, mind and soul.


And Obey His Commands

So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the LORD commanded. -Exodus 7:10

For all of their hemming and hawing, Moses and Aaron seem to finally pull themselves together by this point in the story. In fact, the Lord commands them to create a series of plagues in Egypt, and they obey. There's no... "aw, come on. Snakes? Really?" or "I can't do THAT!" It's different this time. They simply obey. Two times in succession in the same chapter, we see that "Moses and Aaron... did just what the Lord commanded."

I pray that my heart may be so tender toward God, that I may recognize all that He calls me to do, and that I may do just what He commands. Lord, please help make my heart so open to Your will, that I would feel and knew and do just what You would have me do... today and always.


And Honor God with Word and Heart

7You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:
8" 'These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
9They worship me in vain;
their teachings are but rules taught by men.'" -Matthew 15:7-9

17"Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? 18But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.' -Matthew 15:17

In today's passage, Jesus "calls out" the Pharisees for how their hearts are 'far from Him,' just as it was prophesied. They may speak of the Lord but their hearts and their lives show something different. They follow the ways of the world, the teachings of men, instead of a higher calling. And he follows by clarifying that no type of food that goes into your body can make you unclean or condemn you. It is what comes out of your mouth, what comes from your heart that may make you unclean or clean as the case may be.

Last night sitting around the table at GCF, I was struck by a thought. When we're discussing things in that group, I wish we could make it different than our seminar classes... because in essence it is so different. We are not only talking about semantics, words or thoughts... what we are talking about matters. We need to come together to really seek God with all our heart... be tender toward what He is saying to us. As we thought about our sense of purpose that God calls us to, I recognized that our purpose is to know God. It's easy to give this answer as you would in a class. "Good. A+."

But, the point is not to have this fact: Our purpose is to know God. The point is to live it. How can we live out knowing God at every moment?

That's the key... that's keeping our hearts tender toward God... the difference between thinking words and feeling God's presence and keeping our hearts close to Him.


Lord, this morning... I pray for all my brothers and sisters in Haiti... I know that their faith far outshines my own. Please be with them in a real way. Help keep their hearts tender toward you at this very trying time, assuring them that you are there for them. Watch over the Heishmanns as they are there, guide them and give them strength and wisdom to deal with the situations that come about. I pray for my cousin Marisa and my new baby cousin-to-be. I pray for my Aunt Joan... please heal her leg, give her patience, and comfort her as she heals. And watch over Jamie and heal her body. Continue to guide Jon and myself as we look for jobs and what you're leading us to this next year. Also, keep watching over Amy and Adam, their work for you. I know you are faithful to them, Lord, and I thank you for their faithful service to You.