“Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.” 1 John 5:21 NLT
Out of the 4 chapters I read today, this last and final verse jumped off the page of my Bible and hit me between the eyes.
The simplicity of one sentence, unexpectedly revealed my heart. There was no time for justification, no excuses because I didn’t see it coming.
God’s good that way. He knows what we need.
As a wife, mom, woman… He knows that I try to carry way too much on my own…and that’s not a compliment, that’s a lack of trust. He knows that I really do love my own agenda. He sees that my heart is prone to wander much, much more quickly than I care to admit and that I really do think my ideas of how things should be are better than HIs.
Yet what He asks is simple: keep away from anything that might take HIS place in our hearts. He doesn’t say this because He is a selfish, prideful, arrogant man. He says it because HE is our Creator and His love for us runs so deep and so wide that there is nothing He wouldn’t do for our good…including sacrificing His own Son so that we can have relationship with Him.
That means that we CAN trust Him with every nuance of our lives…our marriages, homeschooling, children, relationships, our finances, our bodies, our past, present, and future. We can fall into His loving arms and RELAX, knowing that His heart is FOR us and that He is both able and willing to work on our behalf.
Phtot credit: Simon Migaj