God Gave Me A Heart Attack
In this instance, this heart attack is not a bad thing! God is in a constant battle for your heart. He longs for the time that you will focus on Him and be who He meant you to be – His most loved and cherished child. As a result, He will fight for your attention and attack when necessary.
He doesn’t fight using guns and sticks. He’s not into psychological warfare or tricking and lying to you in order to force you into caring. He doesn’t blackmail or use trickery to get your attention.
Instead, He does what the enemy can’t or won’t… He loves you through your ignorance and uses weapons that you wouldn’t expect: love, patience, kindness. Even while you are avoiding Him, He attempts to gently draw you to Himself where you will be safe and cared for. Matthew 23:37 says, “…how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.” Matthew 19:14: Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
I don’t know about you, but I read this and remember how my kids, when they were young, reacted when I spoke. They would stop and look up at me with complete attention. They listened closely. What I want, and what God wants is for us to be just like that. Of course there is more to my little story which describes what many of us do… after my kids stopped and paid such close attention, they went off and did just the opposite!
From Genesis to Revelation, God is after our hearts. He uses every means possible short of forcing you to draw close to Him, and Him to you. This isn’t a one way relationship that He’s looking for. He doesn’t put huge demands on your life and then go hang out on the couch while you do what you were told. He wants to participate in every single part of your life! There is nothing too small or too large for Him to not want to be there with you.
Another point to remember: it doesn’t matter at what stage of your life you are in. It doesn’t matter what your background is or the things you have done. Psalm 103: 11-13 says,
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us,
13 As a father has compassion on his children,
so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;
I don’t know about you, but for me that is a great relief! I haven’t always been a follower of Christ.
So let’s go back to the title of this post: God gave me a heart attack. To this day, God still battles for our hearts. Even for the hearts of those who follow Him. As believers, we still stumble and fall and God is always there to lift us back up. Just like when your little children fall and you lift them back up, dust them off, and hold them closely as they regroup and establish their footing.
His battle tools: the fruit of the spirit… Galatians 5: 22-23 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
God Bless You, and I pray that He attacks your hearts as well.
