Clear Water Cleans the Heart
What were we made for? We get the answer to this in the 22 chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus responds to the question of what the greatest commandment is. He says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind… And the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39).
If the single most important thing we were made for is love, then it only makes sense that the place we need to fight for most is our love. How we love offers an under the hood look into our present heart posture. It’s quite simple, we were made to love God and love others.
It’s interesting because you can’t fake love or affection. But you can grow into it. Countless times in Scripture, the believer, is referred to as a tree planted by a river. Maybe none so clear as in Jeremiah, “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes, its leaves are always green” (Jeremiah 17:7-8).
Trees have always captured my attention more than most things in nature. Their sturdiness and rooted structure is inspiring. How often I feel like a napkin being blown about by the wind. Toes over head and head over toes all before I blink an eye, at the mercy to the gusts. Trees aren’t like that. They stand firm where they are.
We are called to be a people who eat, drink, and emanate love. I have to confess, my heart is much more selfish than I’d care to admit. The love I have tends to be fickle and self-centered. It’s easy to love when we’re getting what we want. It’s a whole other thing to love when we’re broken and hurting.
This reminds me of that illustration of a glass full of muddy water. It’s thick, dark, and you can’t see through to the other side. But as clean water gets poured in and the glass overflows, the muddy water begins to get washed out and the clear water takes its place. Eventually, as enough clear water is poured, the glass becomes fully clean, containing only clear, see-through water.
Our hearts are like that. Biblically, we can only love because God first loved us. What is it that gets in the way of us loving well? Broadly speaking, you can just about always boil it down to fear. The Apostle John states for us so clearly the power of perfect love, “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them… There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear…” (1 John 4:16, 18).
If fear resembles the mud in our heart and God’s love the clear water, then as we plug into, abide with, and plant ourselves by the river of God’s love, we receive more and more of His perfect love and it’s that perfect love that not only fills us, but cleanses us, purifies us, and perfects us. To where, when matured, our hearts then resemble a mud-free, clear glass of water.
This begs the question, friend, what’s the mud in your heart? What fear is presently holding you back from a full experience and expression of God’s perfect love? For me, it’s the fear of having missed what God had for me in my past and the fear that comes when I compare myself to others. God is ready to pour His love out on you today. Recognizing the fear is one thing and is helpful to a degree, but His love is far greater than your fears. And this God, well He’s a God that gives in abundance. Ask Him, today, to wash your cup, to fill your heart to overflowing, to rid yourself of the muddy residue of fear.
