Only God Can Heal Our Hearts!

THU Evening Prayer Reflection 091020 (Psalm 50; Acts 15)

Psalm 50 has always given a personal jab to my heart. I hope we can share its lessons today. God says to the wicked: "Why do you recite my statutes, and take my covenant upon your lips; Since you refuse discipline, and toss my words behind your back? When you see a thief, you make him your friend, and you cast in your lot with adulterers. You have loosed your lips for evil, and harnessed your tongue to a lie. You are always speaking evil of your brother and slandering your own mother's son. These things you have done, and I kept still, and you thought that I am like you.” We need to remember that stories of the Old Testament have great spiritual lessons for us. The hearts of people whom these words were addressed to, were not different from ours today. 

This made me remember a recent teaching about the human condition. People have always found a way to do wicked things to each other in history. A quote from Jean Vanier is no less shocking: “In all conflicts between groups, there are: one, the certitude that our group is morally superior, possibly even chosen by God. All others should follow our example or be at our service. In order to bring peace to the world, we have to impose our set of beliefs upon others through manipulation, force, and fear, if necessary. Two: a refusal or incapacity to see or admit to any possible errors or faults in our group. The undeniable nature of our own goodness makes us think we are infallible; there can be no wrong in us. Three: a refusal to believe that any other group possesses truth or can contribute anything of value.”

I just want to note how amazing it is that our human resiliency is such that, people still survive horrors at the hands of their fellow humans, and Psalm 50 comes as a mirror for all of us irrespective of which camp we belong to. Our hearts are desperately wicked. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.” (Luke 6: 45) 

I have had a wonderful Christian friend Eugene, whose walk with Christ has always been like a beacon for me. Each time there was trouble in our prayer group, most people would spend time talking about it at length, but he would not say anything. I used to be frustrated at his silence, but later on, I learned the wisdom behind his silence: Not talking about the failures of others as one who is also depending on the mercy of God. We have a natural bent in noticing quickly the failures of others because, somehow, they are more intolerable than our own. I am also guilty here! In this case, the judge is usually I. 

We need the Holy Spirit to alter our perspectives and allow us to see what God sees and change our ways accordingly. We see this kind of struggle in Acts 15. “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” The people from Judea taught. What was the fear behind this? These were people of God and they were making the rules. Was there a hint of force or manipulation like Jean Vanier spoke about? Now full of the Holy Spirit, Peter responds: “God, who knows the human heart, testified to the Gentiles by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us; and in cleansing their hearts by faith he has made no distinction between them and us. Now therefore why are you putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear?” Spot on! A godly perspective!

God can change our hearts, God can get rid of fears we have carried all our lives, fears that we will lose our privileges, fears that we might not succeed in life, fears that we might go hungry… and many more. Jesus comes in the middle of this and tells us to stop carrying such burdens we were never meant to carry. It is by the grace of the Lord Jesus that we will be saved. He is the resurrection and the life. If God is for us who can be against us?

Believe in God and also in his only Son Jesus Christ our Lord. He is the one who gives us strength and capacity to live out his words so that Psalm 50 wouldn’t be so much a reality for us anymore. 

Be blessed today and forever! Amen.