Here is the revelation that is shaping my life today – nothing that is kept in the dark can be healed by the light. But I will only bring into the light what I think the light can handle.
John 2:23-25 TPT
[23] While Jesus was at the Passover Feast, the number of his followers began to grow, and many gave their allegiance to him because of all the miraculous signs they had seen him doing! [24] But Jesus did not yet entrust himself to them, because he knew how fickle human hearts can be. [25] He didn’t need anyone to tell him about human nature, for he fully understood what man was capable of doing.
Observation
Nothing I do is a surprise to God. She knows the human heart. I think at times we think the masks we wear to fool men work when it comes to God, but that is just foolishness., or wishful thinking. We are totally exposed before God. He knows the most intimate part of me, my heart. And yet he never turns from me, he never turns away in disgust or disappointment. I disgust myself at times and want to turn away, but her love never turns. Amazing! Crazy! Beautiful! Not true!
God is so extreme that you have to decide between beautiful and ridiculous. I can see why many don’t believe, “too good to be true” is often a response, and appropriate on the level of goodness. But Jesus spent his time being God before us, showing us God, telling us stories of what God is like, and all the time the same theme continually echos in plain sight – “I know you, I know what you are capable of, I know what you do and think, I know your heart, and I love you and I am for you.” The only harsh judgement is for those who paint a picture of a different God. If you try and make God other than this unconditional lover, then his harshness falls. He will not be known by another name than love.
The only place that the human heart can be healed is when it is able to be exposed. If you don’t know the cancer is there you don’t do anything about it. If you won’t allow yourself to expose your woundedness, your darkness, the parts of you that you know are not you, then they can’t be healed. It is only love that loves without condition, that knows completely but does not flinch or turn away, that can create the context for exposure of the human heart that leads to healing and freedom. Only this kind of love drives out the fear that keeps me in hiding.
Application
I will live fully exposed without fear. I will live with a rhythm of gratitude for unconditional knowing love, that shapes my vulnerability, that I may know loves healing.
Response
Thank you for being the one place in the world where I am completely known. Thank you that knowing does not bring punishment but healing. Thank you that your knowing does not demand change but always invites me into further freedom. Thank you that you can sit with me and all my stuff and not flinch. There is no turning in you. This place of known is the only real place where my wholeness and my me-ness can be found. Thank you that you are that place. I am a blessed man.
Meditation
Mediate – He didn’t need anyone to tell him about human nature.
Consider:
How much do I hide from God?
What part of my brokenness could be healed if I brought it into the openness of the unconditional love of God?
JOURNEY DEEPER
