Heart Tracks - The Secret Joy

      Henry Blackaby said, "You do not choose to be a friend of God.  That is by invitation only."  In Christ, the Father makes that invitation.  Have we answered it?  Not, are we working with Him, serving Him, getting "orders" from Him, but are we His friends?  Do we know Him as a friend? 

    Jesus said in John 15:15 "No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things I have heard from My Father, I have made known to you."  Far too many of us live as His servants, always asking Him what we should do, where we should go, what must we be.  As Jesus says, a servant doesn't know the heart of the master, but a friend does, for his heart is joined with the heart of the one who is his friend.  Oswald Chambers said that a true friend will tell you the "secret joys" of their heart.  Chambers then asks if we are so busy telling the Father what are the secrets of our hearts, that we never hear what are the secrets of His?  Could this be why so many of us really have no idea of what it is the Lord has for us in life?  Could this be why we're always waiting for some "sign" or "wonder" to clue us in on what He's doing and where He's going?  In Christ, the Father invites us into a relationship so deeply intimate with Him that we no longer have to continually ask Him what His will is, we are His will.  His thoughts blend into ours.  His steps are our steps.  Chambers called this 'getting into God's stride."  We're not just walking with Him, we're walking in Him.  We so often seek to do the works of Jesus apart from the life of Jesus reigning within us.  We're looking to do things for Him, rather than in Him.  There's a huge difference.

   It's true that God is a mystery, but He is a mystery ever unfolding in Christ.  He does hold the secret things, but they are secret things revealed in Christ.  Jesus, upon calling His first disciples said to them, "Come and see."  That invitation remains open to you and I.  Max Lucado said that it seems His favorite word is "Come."

Certainly, it's a word He speaks to you and I each day.  "Come to Me."  Not only with our needs, cares, questions, but with our hearts.  Come that we may learn of Him, know Him, be a friend to Him.  Have we ever dwelt upon the truth that His heart longs for the friendship of ours?  As the Lord Jesus said, servants never really know the hearts of their masters.  Friends do.  In Christ, the Father invites us to His heart...right now.  He desires us to be a people that He doesn't just visit, but whom He inhabits.  A people sensitive to not only what He has said, but what He is saying now.  We have heard Him say come with our problems and our wants and desires.  Have we ever heard Him say come....just for Him.  Have we come?  Are we coming.  "My heart has heard You say come.....Lord I am coming."

Blessings,
Pastor O