Devotions this week based on Come Home Week 2 – HEART (WATCH HERE)
Have you ever not wanted to go somewhere because of the person that was there?
As we move closer to Christmas, this may be reality for you. You are planning a trip to someone’s home, but that someone is not a person you want to be with.
Why?
Usually the reason you don’t want to be with someone is not their cooking, their decorating or their location.
Rather, it’s probably because the relationship isn’t right.
As a result you don’t feel right around them.
It’s a heart issue.
Human relationships can leave our hearts wounded. A past hurt. A current conflict. A toxic relationship.
All these challenge our hearts to desire to be in the same place as the person with whom we are at odds.
The same can happen with our relationship with God.
We are angry because we feel he treated us poorly. We have shame over a past sin. We feel uneasy because we haven’t seen him in a while.
When our hearts are broken, distant, or disconnected, we resist being in God’s presence.
Yet he desires to be with us.
So he speaks to our hearts.
He gave these words to Isaiah 2700 years ago, but they are for us today as well.
Isaiah 40:1-2 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
Her warfare is finished that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.
God speaks to comfort. Israel was weary from exile, heavy from guilt, and tired from waiting.
So God speaks to their hearts.
To “speak tenderly” literally means to speak “to the hearts of Jerusalem.” The Lord wanted his words to work past the facade into their hearts. He wanted the truths to sink in deeply.
Whatever was the heart-barrier that was with the people, he wanted to speak words of comfort. He wanted people to know that he was speaking to heal hurts and assure of his love. He wanted these words to break down any heart barriers that were getting in the way of people being in his presence.
God gives the same gift to us. He wants his words to speak to our hearts. He wants his words to assure us we are welcome in his presence and no longer have to stay away. He welcomes us into the stable to see in the manger our Savior born for us.
Christmas is God’s way of saying:
“You are still Mine.”
Apply: Where do I need God’s comfort more than advice right now?
Prayer: Father, quiet my heart. Let me hear Your tenderness, not my shame. Thank You that You speak comfort before You speak correction. Amen.