How does God respond when I Don't?

Excerpt: Indifference is like hypothermia. If I sleep, I die. Yet it's all I want to do. If you love me, don’t let me! Pull me to warmth! It’s why God pulls on us. Our hearts need the fire of His presence. Far more than we realize.

Who can measure the love of a parent for their child? For many parents, that depends on the child. Is our heavenly Father like this? Does His love for us fluctuate according to our love for Him?  What does God feel for children who feel nothing toward Him? As a Dad, I think He loves all His kids equally. For those who don't love Him, He loves them with a broken heart.

How does our heavenly Father respond to His kids when their hearts grow indifferent?

He pleads with us. ‘Return faithless people! I am your husband.’ Jer. 3:14 Jeremiah is full of cries to ‘Repent!’. We often associate calls to repent with angry judgment. Yes He warns us of judgment to come if we don’t repent or turn. But it’s a father’s cry to a son rushing for a cliff. Seeing the cliff, how can a father not cry 'Stop! Turn around!'?

Most of us wouldn’t bother pleading with a friend once their heart's grown hard. At least not for long. How do you keep loving someone who does not want your love? Yet God just can't stop chasing us or pleading with us. Why? He can’t stop loving us.

Is not Ephraim my dear son, the child in whom I delight? Though I
often speak against him, I still remember him.  Therefore my heart
yearns for him; I have great compassion for him," declares the Lord.
 Jeremiah 31:20

Are you still in love with God? In awe of God?
Do you still treasure His love?  His friendship?

I don’t ask this to make you feel guilty. Nor do I assume you’ve lost your fire. And yet it’s worth the risk to ask. For just like carbon monoxide, apathy can lull your soul into deep sleep before you know it. Everything seems OK. Yet your heart's in code blue. With hypothermia, drowsiness is dangerous! To sleep is to die. You need to wake up!
 
It's why your Father won't stop pleading. "Fight this indifference! Don’t settle for a disengaged heart!" If I find you in the snow, succumbing to hypothermia, I will do all I can to get you dry and warm. You'll beg me to let you sleep. Which I won’t. I'll plead with you to wake up, pull you until you do and get you near a fire. As quickly as I can.

Me: “God, come set me on fire!”
God: “Come, sit by mine.”

Why is God always pleading with us to come closer? Because we are made for Him. The heat my soul needs most is the heat of His presence. The warmth of His love. I am a furnace made to burn. Not just with passion. With God Himself. He’s my fire. Without His presence and love, I am the man in the snow. Dying for the lack of a fire.

I can think of many setbacks in my life that God used to wake my heart out of slumber.
I didn’t appreciate it then. But I’m deeply grateful now. Each setback pulled me closer.

I say 'I'm sinful: unworthy of coming to God'. God says ‘I'm merciful. Come as you are’.
I say ‘I’m weak’. God leaves me weak so I feel my need. And my need pulls me to Him.

I say 'I’ve lost the hunger’. If you find indifference in your soul, don’t let it be a reason to avoid God. Let it be the burning bush that draws you to Him. Once we see our sin, we tend to do what Peter did in Luke 5. We turn away from God instead of to Him.

And as we turn our hearts away, we think He has too. He hasn’t. He never turns away. He's not a shepherd who keeps going if we stray or run away. He comes back for us.

You can forget Him altogether but He can't forget you! You're ever on His mind. Why?

He's a Father. He loves you. Always has. Always will. Even if your mind is distracted and your heart divided. Do you no longer love Him? It doesn't affect His love for you. In fact, His eyes are on you now. And His father heart is moved by you just as you are.

What's sad is you can know He loves you, yet remain indifferent. By taking His love for granted. If so, I'll use Petra's lyrics and plead 'Don't let your heart be hardened! Don't let your love grow cold.' Once your love turns cold, you lose what matters most in life.

"Let's have a heart to heart."
God

Others see their apathy and never change because they think about God but never talk to Him. A marriage book can't do what a good heart to heart can. If your desire is gone, speak to Him. From your heart. And let Him speak to you. From His. He will!

If there’s trouble in your love life, it’s your lover you need to hear from. And talk to. What both hearts needs is a heart to heart. It's how you first fell in love. You saw each other's heart. So it's that heart you need to see again. The heart you fell in love with.

So how do we have this heart to heart? How do we connect at a heart level? Words. I
tell you what's in my heart. With words. And you see my heart as you hear my words. Same with God. He conveys His heart with words.  I see His heart as I hear His words. So if you want to hear from God, be in His Word. It's the primary way He talks to us.

So if His words convey His heart, what is it in His heart that He so wants to convey? The same thing a man tries to convey when he gets down on one knee with a ring. The same message a mom hopes to convey to her children every day of their lives.

"I love you.  For better for worse.  Regardless.   Come what may.   Forever."

It's this kind of love that sets a heart on fire. Not only the beloved’s. The lover’s too. And the matches most often used to light such a fire are the heartfelt words of a lover.

The word God chose to convey His love for man became a man. Who came with a message: 'I love you'. The message became a man and a man became the message.

One reason His word is like a fire is because God is a fire. A fire of love. Every word from His mouth is inspired by love and conveys love. Even His words of judgment. Our hearts need His words like our bodies need bread. Why? Our hearts need God.

I need a fire to catch on fire. So if your fire is out, get near His. Have a heart to heart.

Reflection: If you were to have a heart to heart with God, what's on your heart to say?