In a mother’s womb, the music of another heartbeat reveals the wonderous presence of new life being knit together. It is a song she never tires of hearing. It is a miracle she will guard, and hold close, and ponder for months in her 9 months of preparation. She knows its significance. Smiles of relief spread across her face, excitement races through her body, whenever she hears the quiet thuds and quick thumps of her baby’s beating heart.
My guess is, our own heartbeat is something we usually take for granted. How often do we notice it or get excited about it? Unless it skips a beat, the doctor is taking our pulse, or we’ve just gone for a run, we rarely pay attention to the way it faithfully keeps going 24 hours a day, everyday of our life.
But what if we regularly began to peek behind the curtains of our frayed lives, peering into the darkness like the curious and caring mother I described above to listen and wait…I wonder what we would discover in the sound of our heartbeat?
I think, if we stay in those vulnerable moments, our heart would begin to tell us a story.
Before you had eyelids, ears, a nose, a mouth, or even resembled a human, you were first given a heart. Your heart hums to the tune of a God who possessed an overwhelming desire to create you, give you life, and weave His presence and purpose into your very being. Your heart pulses with dreams and visions that only you and God know about. The vibrant way in which it ticks even though it’s tucked away from your own eyes reveals a God who sees you and wants you to keep finding your way back to Him every second.
Even when we feel there’s little proof or evidence for His involvement, in a world of hurt and hopelessness, the hushed beats of our heart should be the only sign we need to realize that indeed life is flourishing, new dreams are birthing, visions once only on the page are taking shape, and His goodness is growing within and around us.
Our heartbeat and His heartbeat are interwoven, made to be mixed, one always leading to the other, like a constant exchange of love letters. God makes His home in us, an intimacy we scarcely understand, but desperately need to dwell in.
When we allow our soul to travel unapologetically into His love, we become heartbeat-hearers, adventurers into this place of deep abiding, where we find Spirit-breathed inspiration to extract the beauty of life, no matter our season.
Here are a four practices I like to include in my weeks to help me find His heartbeat…
- Slow down to allow space for the stillness to apprehend you. Even a few minutes of awareness that He lives in you, can alter the course of your day, your thoughts, and your perspective.
- Learn to settle into mystery and wonder, waiting with bated breath for the faintest, most gentle- thump, thump, thump. Waiting builds excitement and curiosity, and increases our longing and desire for Him, all good things, especially in a world that tells us to be loud and get our needs met instantly.
- Come up to His lap with expectation and a conviction, a stubborn resolve of sorts, believing God’s will for you, and others, is and always will be LIFE. You can look confidently into His eyes knowing He is not up to anything suspicious, He is ridiculously obsessed with giving you and I only more resurrection LIFE.
- Celebrate the secret place by savoring His promises and treasuring His whispers to you. Practice sneaking away with Him. If you feel the need to share what you hear, think again. The ability to keep His words and revelations for a while longer, until He releases you, builds maturity and wisdom in us like nothing else will. His heartbeat becomes louder as we learn to linger.
Let your heartbeat be a reminder of the persistent knocking from heaven inviting us to open the door, “Let me love you. Receive my embrace. Ponder my reckless pursuit of you. Guard the sacredness of the intimacy we share.” Thump. Thump. Thump.
His story is surging through you, your heart a home to the Living God, passionately and consistently reminding you of His pleasure and delight in you.
Do you hear it?
Verses to Ponder: Psalm 5:3, Psalm 91:1-2, Psalm 130:6-7, Proverbs 4:23, Matthew 6:21, Luke 2:18-19, Romans 12:2
Check out the My Beloved: 30 Days of Love Letters in the shop! It is filled with pages is for you to practice cultivating and celebrating a secret intimacy with Jesus, to recapture your romance with Him, to clear away the distractions, and hear His sweet invitations to take His hand and walk with Him into a heart-stopping, breathtaking love adventure.
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