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Get in Touch with Your Heart

Your heart is made for God's Law.

Law and Conscience (4)

…for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing themRomans 2.14, 15

Self-actualized?
Self-actualization is these days an item of concern for many people. The US Army exhorts us to “Be all that you can be.” An old Sammy Davis, Jr. song insisted, “I gotta be me.” The frustration of achieving a sense of self-actualization was echoed by U2’s song, “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.” Films, literature, and television programs provide many examples of people who are trying to get in touch with themselves, to discover who they really are, what’s inside them trying to get out.

This is a very human activity, of course. We know of no animals that fret and fuss and carry on about getting in touch with their hearts.

But it does seem to be an elusive objective. Psychologists and psychiatrists, as well as drug companies, make a living trying to help people sort through the confusion and uncertainty of life so that they can get in touch with their inner persons.

I think it’s probably the case that we all experience some cri de coeur, some anguished longing, angry protest, or other heart-felt sentiment, which we feel to be the real me, the person I’m meant to be, and we struggle all our lives to discover what it is that’s trying to break out of our hearts into our authentic self.

Willing to listen?
But it doesn’t have to be that big a struggle. Listening to our hearts to discover why we’re here and who we’re meant to be isn’t a bad idea. The problem is that too many people are not really interested in knowing what’s in their hearts; they’re interested in having in their hearts, as well as in their lives, whatever it is they think will make them happy. Rather than let their heart speak to them, they spend their lives trying to tell their heart what it ought to feel, desire, aspire to, and finally come to love.

And here is yet another way in which the Law of God shows itself to be the Law of liberty, to which James refers in his epistle, which guides us into the true path of how we must live.

The Bible teaches that, in our heart of hearts, people are bent toward knowing and doing the works of God’s Law. I know that seems unlikely. Just look around: Where’s the evidence that people are interested in knowing and doing the works of God’s Law?

But it’s just possible that people are deceived. Perhaps they have ignored that revelation of truth from God which could set them on a true path of self-knowledge. Or perhaps some spiritual power has led them to believe that true freedom, and thus the best way for them to live, is to be found in their own ideas, rather than in some deep but unexamined inclination of their hearts.

The Bible teaches that it is written on the spiritual fabric of every person’s soul to carry out the commandments of God. Only when we refuse to do so do we begin to run into trouble, for then we’re trying to be something we aren’t. We’re trying to be a law unto ourselves, rather than to follow what God has written on our heart, and our accusing conscience leaves us confused, uncertain, and burdened with guilt – at least, until our consciences become seared and hardened against the truth of who we really are.

We are made in the image of God, and not our own image, or that of the flitting age. We will never be all that we can be, or ever discover what we’re looking for until we let our heart do the speaking and tell us what God intends.

Made for the Law
The Law of God can help us to be what God has created us to be, because it teaches us plainly how we ought to live. Indeed, one of the primary features of the New Covenant is that God writes the Law – not just the works of the Law, but the Law itself – on the hearts of those who believe (Jer. 31.33). Once a person comes to saving faith, what he “knew” instinctively, but probably suppressed and ignored, now comes stunningly to light – he is made, and has been redeemed, to live out the good works of the Law of God.

The Law of God gets us in touch with our heart because it brings to light both our inherent sense of the works of the Law, the righteousness of Jesus Christ – Who fulfilled all the Law of God (Matt. 5.17-19) – and the holiness, righteousness, and goodness of the very text of God’s Law as well (Rom. 7.12).

As we take up the Law of God, under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit, we begin to sense, “Yes, this is what I was made for. This is right and true and good. This is God” We find what we’ve been looking for, so that we can be all we’re meant to be. We are liberated from confusion, doubt, and anxiety of our own or the world’s best ideas, into the glorious light and liberty of the sons and daughters of God.

This is the work of God’s Spirit, as He fills, sculpts, and transforms us into the image of Jesus Christ, according the teaching of God’s Law.

For reflection
1.  Paul says God has written the works of the Law on the heart of every person. What evidence do you see that this is so? How is God re-writing His Law on hearts today? Whose?

2.   Paul says that people can allow their consciences to become seared, so that they no longer pay attention to the works of the Law written on their hearts (1 Tim. 4.1, 2). How does this happen? Do you think the Church today contributes to this problem in any ways?

3.  Paul says in 1 Timothy 1.5 that love flows from a clean heart and a good conscience. What role does the Law of God have in this?

Next steps – Conversation: How do your unbelieving friends try to discover their purpose and way in life? Ask a few of them, and then begin to pray for them daily.

T. M. Moore

This is part 2 of an 8-part series on Purifying the Conscience. To download this week’s study as a free PDF, click here.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He and his wife, Susie, make their home in the Champlain Valley of Vermont.
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