Made whole

"Made Whole."

My Pastor had this as one of his sermon points yesterday, and it started a real thought process in my little Chas brain. I was going to say that it may not have been the direction he would have hoped my thoughts would go, but this man is such an awesome pastor that I know he would be glad for any mental growth in any direction, regardless of how he may have hoped it would go. He just hears from God and then lays it out - it is up to us to respond to God, not just to what Pastor is saying. And for me, it all works quite well.

But the part about being Made Whole was such an important point because it was just a first step. We so often want God to give us our daily desires, lead us in the paths of comfort and luxury, while He wants to make us whole instead. That path may be lined with cash and toys for some of you, but I have yet to be spoiled rotten as a way of making me whole.

What happens to people when they become whole? Amazing things. I was a pastor to a singles group for a number of years, and I can't imagine how many times I would tell a single that they should find wholeness in Christ before they looked for a mate in life. Two half-people do not make a whole. No, in God's economy, it takes two whole people to make a successful relationship. One plus one, in this case, may not make two. One plus one can make many- He is in the business of multiplying his blessing, so a relationship formed of two whole people can positively impact a whole generation.

So often these wonderful folks would look to find wholeness in marriage or in relationships, but their need never went away because often that need was what defined them. They often didn't see it. A good education, a good job, a home, all the wonderful things that our world can afford gave them a false sense of themselves. And yet they longed for something. They just didn't know it was wholeness in God they yearned for. Look at the high failure rate for marriage in and outside the church today: so often the lament is that the spouse, "didn't give me what I needed," or "never cared about my needs." God alone can make a person complete, whole.

What else happens when people become whole? They have more to give. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. It takes a full heart to speak at all, but it takes a heart full of Jesus to speak peace, healing, health, support, love, concern for others, or anything other than selfishness or self-motivated things.

A heart full of bitterness will speak bitterness. It may be very well camouflaged, it may even sound wonderful, but it will be bitterness which comes out of bitterness. So many great songs have been born of pain, and the reason some of them become big hits is that we can hear the pain and connect or identify with it. But if it is where we live now, it should act as a wake-up call. If it is where we were in the past, then use it as a reminder to thank God and keep moving.

A heart full of anger will speak anger. I don't know how much farther I need to go on - there are thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of things a heart can be full of - and so many of them can lead to wonderful Godly lives. Lives lived to the fullest extent of God's plan for you and me.

Ask God today -

"Show me what is flowing out of my heart. I want above all to become a whole person in you, and as a start, I want my heart to be full. Not full of wanting, or full of a huge black hole, but full of the thing YOU want to place there. Let me be a source of Godly change to the world around me as you fill my heart to overflowing with the things people around me need. If you can get it into my heart, you can get it into the lives of the people around me."

Amen.