“For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.” (1 Corinthians 2:11-12)
Good friends want to share each other’s pain and joy. God always wants to pour out His heart on us. Moreover, the heart that God wants to pour out on us is God’s heart toward us. God wants us to know His love and pain for us.
If we don't get to know the depth of God’s love, it’s because we don’t really care about God. It’s not just God that we don’t care about, we are a bit egocentric by nature. It seems that we often don’t even understand the hearts of those who are close to us, whom we should love. I think we are that kind of beings and for us to appreciate God’s invisible love and pain; it’s a story of another world. So it seems that we are often indifferent to God’s love.
If we start to take a little interest in God, we can get to know God’s heart more and more deeply. Because we Christians have a personal teacher, the God the Holy Spirit, who is always with us to teach us about God. When you wake up in the morning, pray to God the Holy Spirit. “Holy Spirit, help me to know the heart of God through the people I encounter and the many things I experience throughout the day.” Then you will become sensitive to the teachings of God the Holy Spirit, who is with us to reveal the heart of God to us.
When parents (teachers) and their children (students) go through something together, that moment can become a teachable moment. As the Holy Spirit is with us, He creates the teachable moments in our lives. The love and pain that a wife and husband feel for each other, the love and pain that children and parents feel for each other, in all those experiences of love and pain, the Holy Spirit gives us the opportunity to fathom God’s love for us.
When you are sick, when you meet someone you are unable to love, in moments of crisis and joy in your life, ask the Holy Spirit about the heart of God in all those moments. The Holy Spirit will enlighten you one by one a little more deeply. I pray that you enjoy such God’s grace during the coming week.
Following the shepherd…
Pastor Jiwon Choi