As we continue to move through the month of February, it seems like a good idea to shift from loving others to loving ourselves. I don’t know about you, but I haven’t spent nearly enough of time in my life searching my own heart and assessing my own health. Life happens, busyness happens, demands happen. Even after the major shifts in our world in 2020, if we simply live reactively instead of proactively, our own care will fall by the wayside.
Ever felt lonely in a crowd, isolated but not quieted, sad in the midst of laughter. How about fearing failure even while being praised, feeling like you aren’t wanted even while being searched out? Of course you have. We all have. We spend much of our lives searching for and striving for others’ approval, but the cup that we fill with the voice of others, is a shallow one.
The truth is our heart is a deep well. It is meant to hold the holy and the sacred. It is meant to be filled with the perfect love of God. The voices of approval from others, can only satisfy it for a moment, we can spend our whole life trying to fill it with other peoples’ opinions, words, wants and needs, but it won’t even make a dent, it’s a short rain in the drought, feels good in the moment, but it will not nourish barren ground.
The only one who has ever been able to fill it, waits for us to ask. He waits as we chase after all the temporary fills, the little splashes of approval, the cups full of praise, maybe even the occasional bucket of love and happiness. It’s a cheap imitation of the fountain He has for us. And He waits. He waits for us to stop. Stop chasing and striving. Stop planning and manipulating. Stop trying to do it ourselves and come to Him.
So, today I challenge you, as I do myself. Will you set aside the time to silence the noise, quiet the distractions, and fix your heart and mind on Him? He has truths He wants to speak in you. He has healing He wants to pour over you. He has joy and hope and life to breathe in you. He has life giving water to fill the deepest place in your heart.