Over the past couple weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to talk to a couple friends about my faith and its balance with facts. The first conversation was actually with a buddy struggling with his own faith. He was hung up on the facts of the Bible. The conversation turned to the science of Jesus being the Christ. I’ve read quite a few books about the chances of Jesus fulfilling the Old Testament prophesies and I've come to believe its statistically impossible for Jesus not to indeed be the Christ. We discussed that a little while and it quickly turned to talking about the inerrancy of the Bible.
For a very long time… from the time I was saved at 12 until I was in my lower 30’s… I had big concerns that people… humans… homosapiens could not pervert the words from God. Not so much about the original text, but about all of the tranlations. I couldn’t believe that all of these translations could be correct. There are all of these biases… Calvanism vs. Arminianism… all of the different canons of the Bible… I just couldn’t see how anyone could be mostly right, let along completely right!
Somewhere along the line, I started to believe that the Holy Spirit guides me in my everyday life. If that's the case, then believing that He can guide the hands of these authors isn't so far fetched. I will admit that I still won't use certain versions to study and understand the real meaning. They are fine for a second version to bounce against if I’m struggling with a passage, but just not as my primary text. That said, I believe that the Holy Spirit will show me the meaning of the scripture if I’m truly seeking God’s guidance. So back to the plot line...
So as we discussed all of this it dawned on me… he was feeding his head, but not his heart! When I made my greatest breakthroughs in faith, it was by feeding my heart… and my head followed. Actually, my head stopped getting in the way and those details that meant so much to me before… faded away. So you ask, ‘what do you mean? You fed your heart’… glad you asked!!!
To me, feeding my heart is all about growing my faith, whereas my head-knowledge is all about facts. We are called to have faith based on fact, so one cannot grow without the other. Growing faith is about “feeling” and “sensing” God… His presense… His love… His provision. That can’t come from a book or a lecture or a dissecting a Greek phrase. It has to be experienced. This means I have to trust my feelings… which is a big challenge all by itself. Humans want to “prove” everything, but that’s not what faith is all about!
For me, the easiest way to feed my heart is to look for God’s fingerprints on my life. Every day I can recognize many instances of God’s grace if I look for them. Those coincidences from my last blog… I hit all the lights on my way to work… I somehow got all my work done so that I can leave on time even though I had back-to-back meetings all day… I saw that guy merging into my lane in time to hit the brakes so that I didn’t get hit… some of those probably sound trivial, but those things add up! God knew the hairs on my head before I was born:
Mathew 10:29 through 31 - 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
Another big way I feed my heart is through worship. For me, singing is the most impactful means of worship… probably because for me it’s an extension of prayer. Whether on Sunday morning while on stage in the choir or in my car on my way home from work, I get the most from opening my heart to God by lifting my voice to praise God or simply talk to Him in song. The words mean something to me and it’s not just a pretty noise.
Serving and giving are two other big portions. By giving back through leading in Celebrate Recovery and by giving financially, I get to represent Jesus Christ to others. It is fulfilling beyond words to know that I’ve personally affected someone’s life to the credit of God… sometimes by face-to-face contact, but mostly through the peace and sense of purpose that I get through the Holy Spirit.
I can’t tell you how to feed your heart because I believe it’s a personal thing. What I can say is that you should figure it out! Start by considering the basics: service, giving and worship. From there, just get plugged in… wherever you feel led. I guarantee that you’ll find out that there is a need for exactly what you have to offer.
Looking back on how I’ve matured in my faith in Christ, I realize that the more I feed my heart, the more my head is satisfied. But if I don’t continue to feed my head, my heart and my faith grow stagnant and I don’t keep moving forward. It takes both things to become more and more Christ-like!!
Ephisians 4: 12 and 13 – …so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
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