The Divine Heart

I once heard someone say: "The people with the biggest hearts suffer the most." God knows and loves every individual beyond the love that any husband and wife have shared or any parent has felt toward a child. The fact of the matter is that many will choose the path to destruction (Matt. 7:13). Many that we love and care about will choose that life over a life for God. How much hurt does the One with the biggest heart feel, when His loved ones turn away from Him? Our sin breaks the heart of God, far beyond that of any adulterous spouse or disobedient child. But, while we were unlovable, our brokenhearted God loved us. While we were dead in our sins, Christ died for us. In shame, “we hid, as it were, our faces from Him” (Isa. 53:3). He responded by bearing our griefs, carrying our sorrows, and taking our sin upon Him (Isa. 53:4-6).

Out of the Christian life flows a river of tears – tears of sadness and joy. The more we immerse ourselves in Christ, the more we share in His divine joy and divine sadness – the more we feel as He feels. When we feel and love like Him, we are motivated by the fact that souls are on the line. When a loved one is losing a battle to Satan, it should cut to the heart far more than finding out that they have been in a serious accident or are terminally ill. Physical death can only separate us for a while. Spiritual death separates for eternity.

But, when our loved ones respond to God with love and faithfulness, the joy we experience goes beyond a fitting description, for it is an eternal joy. It reminds me of Paul’s relationship with the Philippian Christians, when he describes his joy as being directly tied with their faithfulness to God: “make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose” (Phil. 2:2 NIV). Jesus “endured the cross” because of the “joy that was set before Him” (Heb. 12:2 NKJV). The cross is the pinnacle of God’s display of love, because, through the blood of Christ, we can draw near to Him (Heb. 7:19; 10:19).

Love is found in sacrifice. Sacrifice is found in love. God’s love draws our broken hearts to Him (2 Cor. 7:10). A world of lost souls is before us. When we see the joy that can be theirs, through Christ, will we endure in our love and sacrifice for them, that we may draw them near to God? “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life (Rom. 5:8-10). As Jesus had compassion over the multitudes, let us share in His compassion for those who have no shepherd (Matt. 9:36). As Jesus mourned over Jerusalem, wanting to gather them under His care (Matt. 23:37), let us mourn those who are not under the care of God. But, let us also join our hearts with the joyous heart of God, over the broken heart that falls penitent before Him (Lk. 15:7).

-Cary Gillis D.Min.

December 22, 2019