Heart-Wide-Open!

I have just a few minutes, but there is a lot on my mind this morning. I woke up thinking about heart-wide-open. Eight years ago God gave me a parable that rocked my world. With this parable, He placed the keys to the Kingdom of God in my hands, and I got to walk in that power for a short season. Then after a few months He said, "You can go through any door that I open, but you cannot open a door yourself." Then He proceeded to close every door. Hearts closed to me. God did it. But in the middle of all of that, God taught me how to keep my heart wide open toward those whose hearts were closed to me. This kind of sounds crazy. I hope you are picking up what I am putting down. Many of you who really know me know what I am saying because your heart closed to me for a time or a season too - it may still be closed, and that's OK.

So I tried to address this issue the other day with people I love the most. I don't know that they understood what I was saying. They kept saying, "So you are right, and we are wrong." No. It is not about right or wrong, it is about open or closed. Then this morning I woke up thinking about open and closed. What causes a person's heart to close to another? Sometime our hearts close towards those who smell different or look different or dress different or are of a different color or a different economic status or a different religion or a different political stance or of a different sexual orientation. Lots of things get in the way of heart-wide-open. Sometimes pain and sorrow will not allow a heart to open wide ever again. Sometimes - maybe all the time - being offended causes the heart to close tightly. Whatever it is, it has to be addressed because there can never be a relationship unless the heart opens wide to receive it. For some of you that sounds scary, but it is not scary if we let God heal all of the broken places and all of the things that are getting in the way of heart-wide-open.

The first person we have to open our heart wide to is God. Without His healing power we will never be able to stand heart-wide-open. It is too much. We are too vulnerable . Jesus said He is always standing at the door knocking, and He said that if anyone opens the door to Him, He will come in and sup with them. He will talk to us and counsel us and heal us and set us free. He will take us to His banqueting table where we will find plenty of good things to eat, and as he begins to mend all of our broken places, our heart will be able to open to others once again. His perfect love will cast out all of our fears, and then we will be able to turn towards others, even those who are different from us or who have abused us and spitefully used us, and we will be able to open our heart wide toward them. We will be able to forgive and let go. Our heart will turn and open, and it is at this point that we will be able to love those who hate us, bless those who curse us, and pray for those who spitefully use us. We will be able to open up to those who are different, those who do not look or act like we do. And even thought God said to mark those who cause divisions and stay away, we can still be on their side - even those who God will not let us hang around.

So heart-wide-open is a choice. We get to choose to close our heart to God and to people, or we get to choose to - I KNOW IT IS SCARY - O P E N our hearts wide to God and to people.  Oh my goodness! If we could get hold of this one, it would change everything. It has already changed the ones I love most.

Anyway, I just wanted to say, "I love you guys. I want so desperately for hearts to open wide. I would do anything to see that happen, but I can't do it, only you can. But I will choose to stand here with heart-wide-open no matter what."
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Blessings, my friends.  May the LORD Himself teach us to live heart-wide-open.

​Terri