i exalt thee

Have you ever had something overwhelm you with the nearness of God? For me it is a certain worship song that I have grown up loving titled "I Exalt Thee." I'm sure most of us who have grown up in church attach ourselves to a certain nostalgia with this song. But as of late this song has been one of the most successful vehicles for driving me into worship of God. The tipping point for my sudden attachment to this song was at my wedding. Danielle and I knew that we wanted to have a section of our wedding ceremony dedicated to worshiping God, and this song was one of two songs we had some friends of ours lead. I don't know if it was how suddenly I realized what was happening or it was the relief that that day was finally here, but when that song started to play, I was overwhelmed with thankfulness. The presence of God was so strong on my most significant day. The best way I can think to describe it is that the nearness of God was so palpable. I felt like I could reach out and touch it. Most memories fade into a faint distant recollection of experience, but when I reflect back on this day, it's like I'm back there at that alter standing in my suit next to my soon to be wife, looking up at red brick wall I was standing in front of, with warm tears uncontrollably streaming down my cheeks. All I could think to mutter was thank you Jesus. I must have said those three words 50 times during the two song worship set, but I'm telling you I meant those words.

Now whenever I hear that song, "I Exalt Thee" my mind takes me back to that hot late afternoon, and I am once again overwhelmed with thankfulness to God.

what makes Jesus difficult

What makes Jesus difficult is that he is going to go after our hearts. Most of us don't want him to do that. We would rather work for Jesus. We'd rather commit to doing all sorts of good things and being a good person (our definition of a good person at least), Just as long as he leaves our heart alone. So it looks like this: Jesus, I'll go to church twice a week, I'll give my tithe regularly and offering often, read my Bible everyday, not watch rated-R movies, lead a small group, I won't do this, I will do this.... just leave my heart alone!" We do not like it when Jesus presses on and snoops around our heart with the intent to expose core issues.

The problem with this whole idea is that God is not interested in the things we do for Him if we don't have the heart to back it up. We see this scattered throughout scripture. In Isaiah, God refers to Israel as a people who honor Him with their lips, but their hearts are far from Him. Many times God comments on how much He hated their sacrifices and fasting, because their hearts were not on the same playing field. We even read in the gospels how Jesus would approach the ones you would least likely expect needing correction and confront them concerning how wicked their hearts were. The heart is very important to God.

Since God's operation on the heart can be so uncomfortable, most of us busy ourselves with good things (ministry, prayer, fasting, etc.) in order to disguise the fact that we have never dealt with the area of our heart that God has revealed. We'd rather wake up an extra half hour early and do our devotions than confess and repent of that secret sin, or forgive that person that hurt us. We go extra lengths with outward works in order to secretly nurse our core heart issues. But again, God is not enamored with the outward appearance like people are. Right actions with the wrong heart is in no way pleasing to God. A scheme like this has the potential to fool everyone around us and make the most pious men proud of us, but we will never have the ability to fool God. Actions do not hide our hearts from God. God still sees it and will not be satisfied until we let Him have it.