Word: Heart

Series: The Word

Psalm 73:25-26 ESV

I’ve said it before and will probably say it again, I do not remember a time when God was not the strength of my heart.

That’s because for as long as I can remember, God has been my strength, my heart, my guide.

I’ve known believers who were not raised in church. Their parents did not go to church. They struggled as their parents questioned them about their commitment to God, church, and Jesus.

Through the years I’ve prayed for parents of children who didn’t support their decision to attend church.

I’ve prayed with and for children of parents who wanted their parents to attend church and turn to God WITH them. Their children would have loved it if their family could have worshipped God together. In many of those cases the change did come, but it wasn’t instant and it wasn’t until the children were grown and had children of their own.

I’ve known grandparents who believed and turned to Jesus for the first time because their grandchildren begged them to go to church with them.

While the children of adults who don’t go to worship God together are really happy when their parents do finally go, they are still sad that they missed the opportunity to go with them while they were young.

In the final words of Psalm 73 in verses 25-26, the writer (Asaph) speaks of the his hope of his eternal glory in heaven with God.

He declares:

“Whom have I in heaven but you?    And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.

My flesh and my heart may fail,    but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

On earth when all else fails and we are alone we still know nothing on earth compares to our final home in heaven with God.

But still, beginning now when our earthly bodies fail, God’s strength carries our heart and that is all we really need. It is our portion now and forever.

That strength, that portion is what the children of God who do not have parents who turn to God desire.

That strength and portion of God is what parents desire for their children.

Recently we remembered December 7, 1942 in the U.S.A.

Even today my Mother remembers that day. She was fourteen years old when everyone in her family sat (holding each other) around the radio listening to what had happened at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.

It was an unspeakable event for Americans. Even though there was a war, we were half a world away from the battles being fought.

Now suddenly we were not.

Not only did it change what would happen on our shores, it changed what would happen around the globe.

I bring that event up because I have access to someone who was there that day. Even though she lived in the middle of the Midwest, she knew what happened would change everything.

Everything changed. In an instant everything changed.

What she remembers decades later is that her family sat ‘glued’ to the radio all day. They were all nervous about what it would mean for her older brother.

Other friends and sons and daughters of friends signed up as well and they were suddenly gone. My dad was a year older than my Mom and he lived just a few blocks away from where my Mother lived and as soon as he was old enough he was gone. She didn’t know him personally until after the war, but she knew his younger brother and some of his friends.

That day changed my family forever.

I would not arrive for eleven more years, long after the war was over.

A few times I tried to get my dad to talk about the war, but he didn’t say much.

My dad was a man of faith and when I was growing up and I would find him sitting in his chair with his eyes closed, he was praying.

Years down the road after I was married and had children of my own he was diagnosed with cancer. My youngest son was three years old when he was diagnosed.

My dad prayed day and night and I think he knew God was calling him home. His heart was for God and God was calling to him.

He knew God was holding him. He knew if (when) his flesh and his heart failed, God’s heart would carry him. He knew God was his portion and even in the early days he relied on God to carry him to his eternal resting place in God.

Spiritual Practice: Whatever Whenever

Practice sitting in silence with God, and let God be your heart and your portion.

In God, Deborah

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