Over and over again in the Old Testament, God declares His love for His covenant people. It is a love that embraces too those who are part of the new covenant of grace, and that includes us. I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love, I have drawn you to myself. Jesus Himself says to us, “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me.” I cannot begin to comprehend the depth, the breadth, the height, or the intensity of God’s love for the One who is part of His own nature, His only Son, the One in whom He takes absolute delight. And yet, it is a love of that same magnitude and intensity that Jesus gives to us! Me – with all my imperfections. Me – secluded in that place within myself. But not just me – His love is for you, even when your thinking and your emotions run rampant, and leave Him out.
God knows though, not only when we seclude ourselves, but He knows that to stay there will infect every facet of my being and my doing. His desire is to lift me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire, and to set my feet on solid ground and steady me as I walk along. He wants to give me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to my God, so that many will see what He has done. For that to happen, I must invite Him in to my place within myself. I must be honest with Him and open to the change He is able to bring. I may need to find someone who is “God-with-skin-on” and invite them in as well. God works that way, even when I would rather stay in my cocoon. “The place inside myself” stifles my freedom and my growth, and much more. Some of us go there more quickly than others, but nonetheless, believing in what God has for me, I must listen for His presence at the door, and invite Him in.
(Related Bible reading: Psalm 40:1-5)