MEDITATION MOMENT – Loving God from the Heart

I said this to a close friend, “I want to have what you have, a deep and intimate relationship with God from the heart.” My friend was a woman, of course, and here’s why.

I think men have a heart block in their relationship with God. Notice the verb I naturally chose in that premise— Think. Men can naturally love with all their mind and strength, but when it comes to the soul or heart, I feel that is where they reach a ceiling, and I feel that is why a man’s love for a woman is found to be incomplete. Do you see the correlation I’m making? The extent of a man’s love for a woman is limited by his lack of openness to being vulnerable, the same restrictive weakness in loving God with all his heart.

This morning I woke during the hour of five, and my first thought was the words I said to my close friend. I asked God, “What is the limitation in loving You with all my heart, the same limitation in loving a woman?” I sensed three words— Sacrifice, Self, Pride.

Now, as I contemplate that—

As a man, we are instinctive “alpha,” or rather, we had to be in ancient days to survive. And back then women survived because men protected them. It was not a death sentence for a woman to be vulnerable because she had a shield, her man. Why do women cry out to God more than men? They want that divine shield. Is it because women feel incomplete in their man’s ability to protect them? Or noting his faults, women seek the perfect source of protection? Is loving God with all your heart more than a desire and it becomes a need? “I need you, God, I need you now,” we cry out.

We are to love God with agape love, with self-sacrifice. When we need something, we lack, and we want to fill to become complete. It requires openness and vulnerability to admit, “I am incomplete without you.” Pride says, “I don’t need you.” What is pride but a false shield—a façade—covering our insecurity, our feeling unworthy because somewhere in our past we were vulnerable and became wounded? As so we can’t, we can’t open our heart because when we do, the tenderness behind that scarred and calloused door is the innocence of love as a little boy or girl. And most boys didn’t run to their daddy for comforting love, girls may have because dad was strong, boys may not have because they were wounded— Big boys don’t cry.

So, how can a man love God with all his heart? Picture yourself wounded on the battlefield. You’re evacuated by helicopter and flown to a MASH unit. The medical team removes your tattered uniform; you're fully exposed. You’re beyond vulnerable; you’re already severely wounded. You don’t resist treatment; you’re entirely surrendered to whatever capability or power there is to be healed. —That’s the way it is to love God with all your heart—with complete surrender, total exposure, open vulnerability to God’s perfect love that does not wound— God’s love heals.

That soldier who became wounded? He or she sacrificed his or her Self— That is done with agape love—dying to self, laying down your life for the benefit of another.

Now, do you see why the extent of a man’s love for a woman is limited by his lack of openness to being vulnerable, the same restrictive weakness in loving God with all his heart?

Shalom. ~JC

Copyright 2018  © Jeff Cambridge

"'You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.' And, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" ~Luke 10:27 NLT

“Need You Now” (Official Music Video) by Plumb

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9CjYvQDDIo

Need You Now

Plumb

Well, everybody's got a story to tell
And everybody's got a wound to be healed
I want to believe there's beauty here
'Cause oh, I get so tired of holding on
I can't let go, I can't move on
I want to believe there's meaning here

How many times have you heard me cry out
"God please take this"?
How many times have you given me strength to
Just keep breathing?
Oh I need you
God, I need you now.

Standing on a road I didn't plan
Wondering how I got to where I am
I'm trying to hear that still small voice
I'm trying to hear above the noise

How many times have you heard me cry out
God please take this?
How many times have you given me strength to
Just keep breathing?
Oh I need you
God, I need you now.

Though I walk,
Though I walk through the shadows
And I, I am so afraid
Please stay, please stay right beside me
With every single step I take

How many times have you heard me cry out?
And how many times have you given me strength?

How many times have you heard me cry out
"God please take this"?
How many times have you given me strength to
Just keep breathing?
Oh I need you
God, I need you now.

I need you now
Oh I need you
God, I need you now.
I need you now
I need you now

Songwriters: Christina Wells / Luke Sheets / Tiffany Lee

Need You Now lyrics © DO Write Music LLC, Mike Curb Music