Religion of the Heart
One of the greatest Christian revivals of history was brought through a man who believed in the importance of a "heart" experience of God. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, went through a profound spiritual transformation in which he described his heart as "strangely warmed." Many of us can testify to God's presence touching us in such a way that our hearts are "strangely warmed." Some of us have responded to God's call in a church service and we have all certainly sensed God's beauty during our worship times. But what about our life outside the church walls?
If you're like me, you've experienced other heartwarming experiences that seemingly had nothing to do with God. For instance, sometimes I'll hear a piece of music that is not directly related to God or Christianity and yet still sense a profound sense of joy or peace in the melody.
Once when I was traveling by bus in the countryside of Ireland, I was listening to the voice of a young woman sitting behind me as she conversed with a friend. Her gentle Irish accent combined with soft, flowing voice brought images to my mind of a cool mountain stream. Simply hearing her voice was a spiritual experience in itself. I could somehow sense the mystery and peace of God in a way that I had never experienced them before. Through this experience I received new revelation of God's goodness that drew me closer to him.
What are we to make of such experiences? Some would say that they are simply useless fantasies that distract us from God's call. C.S. Lewis rejected this idea, claiming in his writing that these joyful "romantic" experiences are ways in which God woos us into deeper relationship with Him. If we believe otherwise, we are limiting the scope of God's presence and calling in our lives. God is the author of all that is good, and somehow we need to relate all the good things in life to His plans and purposes. Our God is big enough to speak to us through our heartfelt emotions, even in ways that seem foreign to our spiritual paradigm. We can be transformed as we sense the truth that lies in His radiant beauty.
The first part of the Great Commandment instructs us to love God with all our heart, mind, and soul. Our heart is often referred to as the seat of the emotions. We were created as emotional creatures and God expects us to love him through our emotions. Every now and then he gives us a little glimpse of himself by filling our senses with extraordinary things. It was God who created those joyful sounds of music, even if they were written and performed by the hands of a person unaware of God's leading in the creative process. When we hear the uplifting music or see the beautiful sunset, it's as if God is saying, "Here is part of my character. Here is a taste of joy to draw you closer to me." When we begin to see God's beauty in new ways, we then have the capacity and unction to love him more and more.
Unfortunately, not all matters of the heart tend to be so positive. Especially with regard to our relationships, opening our hearts can cause great pain. We experience the beauty, grace, and sheer angelic qualities of another person, only to be disappointed when he or she lets us down or severs the tie with us. We follow our heart, and we get burned as a result.
Some would say "If you had not let your emotions get out of control, then you would not have been hurt so badly." But what if we didn't follow our heart? What if we played it safe and didn't allow ourselves to be so passionate? Yes, we would experience less pain, but we would also experience less joy. Moreover, we may miss the opportunity for God to work out his plan in our lives.
God has not called us to live like robots. Sometimes he calls us to follow our hearts even when it doesn't lead to the "happily ever after" ending that we expect. He often has a greater purpose, and that purpose is always to draw us closer to him, which will in turn lead to ultimate fulfillment for us. Following our heart involves risk, and God performs his work in us through both the positive and negative occurrences in our lives.
There have been times when I've experienced sheer ecstatic joy as a result of another person in my life. Conversely, I've felt the intense pain that comes when that person is gone. But somehow God has managed to bring me closer to him through both the joy and the pain. The joy allowed me to see the awesome goodness of God and totally transformed my understanding of God's character. The pain forced me to let go of my ego and depend on him completely for my emotional health. I'm not speaking of a minor revelation that's forgotten in time. I'm speaking of a complete life-changing experience that no church service, preacher, or revival meeting has ever brought to my life.
If you'll notice, there was more at work in my experiences than just the heart. The scriptural knowledge that I had gained over the years helped me to place my heart experiences in the proper context. I knew that God had a plan for my life. I knew that God was a good God, and I knew that "all things would work together for good" if I only had patience and perseverance in my love relationship with God. It took quite a long time, but God's peace finally brought me out of the pain, and I began to understand that the joy was his way of showing me a glimpse of eternity.
Reason and understanding were used to help me make sense of my emotions. We often play reason and emotions against one another, preferring one over the other, and even developing ethics based on one at the expense of the other. But emotion and reason should be partners. We can experience God through our emotions, and reason (through meditation on God's Word) gives us the capacity to understand how those emotions relate to God's presence and purposes in our lives. In addition, the principles that we learn from biblical law help us to differentiate between true heart experiences and the carnal emotions that seek to destroy us.
This religion of the heart is not just a way of "enjoying" God. Heart religion is essential if we are to move forward in our relationship with our Creator. We can have all the knowledge of God possible, but still not love him. Only when we open our eyes to see the beauty, majesty, goodness, completeness, and holiness of God are we able to love him.
If we only allow ourselves to see God through the traditional means - church services, prayer, Bible study - then we are limiting our love for God. Our view of God becomes too narrow. These traditional ways are certainly essential to any Christian life, but are better seen as foundations upon which we build our love relationship with God. Study of the Bible can help us clarify our heart experiences of God, our prayer lives can be enhanced by the deeper sense of God that we get from heart experiences, and we can bring our newly found joy to our worship times.
I am convinced that as we open our hearts to experience God in various ways, our carnal thoughts will begin to fade away. Our goal should not be to just "not sin." Rather, it should be to "not want to sin." When our hearts are in love with God's beauty, truth, and character, we come closer to the ultimate truth of the universe and of our existence. As a result, we find it unbearable to engage in thoughts or activities that are contrary to our own livelihood and the livelihood of our neighbors. For that is what sin is all about -- behavior that contradicts life. Holiness, on the other hand, is a pure love for life. Our hearts should learn to love life so much that we experience it in all its fullness.
Each of us has a human heart in which God desires to dwell. He longs to see all his children come into a full relationship with him. Our quest is to purify our hearts by seeking out the beautiful and holy characteristics of our Creator so that our love becomes more passionate with each passing day, and the blinding scales of sin that we cling to are cast aside in the sea of irrelevancy. Jesus said, "blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Matthew 4:8).
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