Teach me to love Thee as Thine angels love,
 One holy passion filling all my frame;
The kindling of the heav’n-descended Dove,
 My heart an altar, and Thy love the flame.

Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart
By: George Croly, 1780-1860

Listen as you read.  This is a very simple flute and harp version.

This final stanza calls the Holy Spirit to teach us two more images, equally powerful and compelling, and beyond our grasp.  Today we will consider the holy passion of the angels who ever circle the throne praising God.  Thursday we will think about a very powerful image of God’s love as a fire.  We need the Spirit to understand and practice each of them so let’s ask Him to teach us this week.  Let’s tune our hearts.

As Angels Love

Now there is a tall order.  We will definitely need the Holy Spirit to teach us this one for it is eternal and other-worldly.  To love as angels love requires us to consider who they are and how they love.

Angels are God’s messengers.  They represent Him some times and speak for Him at other times.  Scripture tells us a lot about them and yet there is a great deal of mystery regarding these heavenly beings.

One of the powerful passages illustrating angels and their relationship to God is the beginning of Isaiah 6, particularly 6:1-3.  Their adoration is

1. relational
2. continual, and
3. hallowed

Relational

They are together somehow standing “above” God.  Not sure exactly what that means, but I imagine they are circling the throne.  I love how Isaiah records that they call one to another.   They all know He is holy, but they keep declaring it to each other.  There is some communal dimension to their affection.

Continual

They never stop.  Over and over again.  I have said for years of our worship that we should not grow so easily weary of declaring to one another things that are true of God, particularly because we need to be reminded, unlike the seraphim who are ever in His presence.

Hallowed

I wanted to use an unusual word for this last one to represent just how different the love of angel’s is from ours.  Our love can be relational, expressed in the company of others.   It is not continual, in some measure because we have to stop to sleep, but even still our waking moments are commandiered by other intentions.  These least of these by far is this last one though.  Their worship is hallowed or sacred, regarded as holy because it is an all-consuming passion.

Holiness at its core means integrated, or the opposite of disintegrated or undone, which Isaiah confessed was his state in the presence of the integrated, whole, or holy One.  The love of the seraphim reflects the holiness of the One they adore.  Only the Holy Spirit can give un insight into this reality, and any hope at all of approximating it, even at our best moments.

One Holy Passion

It is this kind of integration that is our aspiration.

The seraphim could use all six wings to fly, but they do not.  I have heard different explanations but I like this the best.  Two cover their eyes acknowledging they can not look directly at God.  Two cover their feet acknowledging they are not worthy to be fully seen by God.  Two are used for their assumed purpose, flight, moving them to love.

Might we learn something from them?  We must use all of our capacities to express love to God, but maybe not as we might think.    One-third used to make less of us and more of Him.  One-third used to acknowledge our unworthiness and extol His worth.   One-third used according to their assumed purpose.   These thirds working together in seamless tandem as an integrated, sacred compelling desire.  One holy passion filling all my frame.

The seraphim seem consumed.  Look at the image.  All wings?  All bent to one purpose.

Integrated Tuning!

Spirit of God, teach me to love as the seraphim love.  One holy passion filling all my frame.  When parts of me get out of sync with it, help me to identify it and adjust accordingly so I can maintain that consuming desire.  Thank You for the imagery of the angelic adoration.  Help me reflect it today.  In Jesus name.  Amen.

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Subscribers enjoy this podcast! Everyone else, the transcript below.

Video 6.5 Transcript

Welcome to Tuesday Tunings at Resonant 7, where we reflect on the reality of God and resolve to let it resound in our lives, repeatedly. Let’s tune our hearts.

Teach me to love Thee as Thine angels love,
 One holy passion filling all my frame;
The kindling of the heav’n-descended Dove,
 My heart an altar, and Thy love the flame.

This stanza uses some beautiful imagery.  Oh, to love God as His heavenly messengers do.  And how is that? Continually. They never stop their “Holy, holy, holy”, constantly offering praise to God.  Consider the example of those who are ever circling His throne.   

A singular, holy and intense desire and enthusiasm for our Lord.  An all-consuming fire that burns within our entire souls. Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you with such a passion.

In this imagery, the material that burns is the very presence of the Holy Spirit, the heaven-descended Dove.  He is the kindling that gets that fire burning. Welcome Him to come and be that quickening fire-starter in you.

Our hearts are the place where fire burns. God’s love is the flame.  My heart the altar, the Holy Spirit the kindling, the love of God the flame.  Oh Spirit light that fire within me and teach me how to care for it.

Take a few moments to talk to Jesus about what has surfaced in your heart, or just listen to what He is saying to you, then we will sing once more.

Sing

Take the awareness of God’s presence cultivated in these last few minutes into the next ones and beyond.  Until next time, be Resonant.

Image Attributions
Angels love – Image by Karin Henseler from Pixabay https://pixabay.com/illustrations/heart-angel-wing-love-mourning-669552/
Isaiah 6 – https://lindasbiblestudy.wordpress.com/2016/11/16/seraphim/
Seraphim – https://revivenations.org/blog/2015/04/15/worshiping-god-like-the-seraphim/

Teach me to feel that Thou art always nigh;
 Teach me the struggles of the soul to bear,
To check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh;
 Teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.

Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart
By: George Croly, 1780-1860

Listen as you read.  This is a nice string quartet version.

This week our stanza calls on the role of the Holy Spirit as our Teacher.  Every line asks for Him to teach us different things, including even the third one which carries over from line 2.  In our Tuning today we will focus on the first two lines, saving the last two for our Thoughts on Thursday.  Let’s tune our hearts.

You Are Near

Some stanzas tell a story, using all four lines to slowly craft a single poetic thought or illustrate a solitary image.  While others build to a climax as they develop, increasing in intensity as the lines build one on another.  Some stanzas are a list of things about a singular topic, like two weeks ago, but not this one.  It is a list of sorts of things we want to be taught but I actually think they are all taught within the context of the first one, an awareness of God’s presence.

While we will take some time to consider each of these requests, overcoming soul struggles, doubt, rebellion, while acquiring patience, when we are confident that God is with us, ever nearer than we can even perceive, we are able to handle all the other ones.  This is one of the most basic doctrinal truths, and a foundational one as well.  God is omnipresent, or present everywhere at the same time.

“Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord.  Jeremiah 23:23-24 ESV

I love it when God asks a rhetorical question.  Whether close at hand or far away, God is there, seeing us even in what we think are secret places.  He fills heaven and earth. When we embrace this fundamental reality of God’s presence it alters our ability to deal with everything we face, and even has the effect of keeping us out of behaviors that create problems for us.  So why would we not long for this more?

I dare say it is because there are things we would rather God did not know were true about us.  Why else would the man of the verse above attempt to hide himself in a “secret place”?  What things about your thinking, speaking and doing would you rather hide?  If you are willing to sincerely ask for God to teach you He is always near, you are effectively asking Him to shine His light into even the darkest recesses of you soul.  Which, by the way, is a great idea, and simultaneously a wonderful segue to the next prayer.

Soul Struggles

We all have them.  Times when our soul feels a weight that is difficult for words to express.  Sometimes these are of our our doing, and sometimes the doing of others.  Sometimes they pass, and other times they linger for long periods.

In those especially long seasons we experience what Saint John of the Cross termed the “dark night of the soul”.  That feeling that it is 3 o’clock in the morning all the time, inescapable darkness.  We know the darkness will not last, for the sun always rises, but even so they are painful seasons.  As it says in Psalm 30:5b, “Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.”  The darkness is always darkest before the dawn.

What weight is your soul struggling with today?  I figure you probably do not have to think very hard about that.  Have you asked the Holy Spirit to help you with that struggle in particular?  Have you named it before the Lord and asked Him to help you bear it?

We often ask first for the struggle to be removed and find ourselves quickly discouraged when it is not.  Maybe God has another purpose for your struggle than just to remind you of your need for Him.  Maybe He wants to use it to develop something in you.

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. James 1:12 ESV

The Spirit is waiting to give us the power we need to bear the weight of every struggle our soul will face.  If this test has the purpose of developing your spiritual strength, will you ask the Holy Spirit to help you demonstrate your love for God by remaining resolutely firm and unwavering in the midst of it?

Crown of Life

Now while I did not counsel you to ask for a crown of life, I am sure you noticed that promise in the midst of that verse.  And what an amazing one!  As if the strength to remain steadfast were not a treasure enough, when we use it to show our faithful love to God in the trial He promises a crown of life.

While rightly viewed as the promise of life after death, there is also another promise here.  It is the promise of life as God intended here and now, an intimate and personal relationship with God in love, a product of the development of fortitude through repeated victory in every test.  Only the Holy Spirit can accomplish this in the life of even the most resolute follower of Jesus, but His teaching is available to all who will ask.  So ask today!

Resolute Tuning!

Spirit of God, be my Teacher.  Teach me to feel God’s presence always near, for it makes the difference in every circumstance.  Flowing from that confidence teach me how to develop the fortitude to bear the struggle of every trial of my soul, that I may gain a more intimate relationship with my Savior, the crown of life.  In Jesus name.  Amen.

Like what you finding here?  Fill out the form to the right to get an email with each fresh post and updates of new tools to help you be Resonant.

Please comment below and share if you have found this helpful in your journey of being more resonant.

Below is content available only to Subscribers.  Want to learn more about accessing all the additional material in the Subscriber Content Library, click here, or the Free Member Content Library with some examples of the Subscribers content, click here.

Subscribers enjoy this podcast! Everyone else, the transcript below.

Video 6.4

Welcome to Tuesday Tunings at Resonant 7, where we reflect on the reality of God and resolve to let it resound in our lives, repeatedly. Let’s tune our hearts.

Teach me to feel that Thou art always nigh;
 Teach me the struggles of the soul to bear,
To check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh;
 Teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.

Though God is always near, I dare say closer than our breath, we often fail to live with an ongoing awareness of such. Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you how to live with a constant sensitivity to His presence.

Is your soul struggling today?  If not, you can probably recall a season not long ago when it was.  Either way, it is only a matter of time before it does again. Ask the Holy Spirit for the strength to bear those soul struggles.

When we face difficulties, our minds find doubt rising.  When we are reminded of God’s ways, our rebellious flesh balks.  Ask the Holy Spirit to check, to stop or slow the progress of these attitudes.

On first glance this last line seems like a prayer for the patience required to wait until God answers prayer.  With more careful examination, I think it may be a request for the same patience God exhibits between our prayer and His eventual answer. Ask the Holy Spirit for that patience.

Take a few moments to talk to Jesus about what has surfaced in your heart, or just listen to what He is saying to you, then we will sing once more.

Sing

Take the awareness of God’s presence cultivated in these last few minutes into the next ones and beyond.  Until next time, be Resonant.

Image Attributions
God is Near – https://wilshireave.com/sermons/god-is-near/#
Dark Night of the Soul – https://billmuehlenberg.com/2015/09/20/the-dark-night-of-the-soul/
Crown of LIfe – https://pixabay.com/illustrations/watercolour-watercolor-paint-ink-1768925/

Hast Thou not bid me love Thee, God and King?
 All, all Thine own, soul, heart and strength and mind.
I see Thy cross; there teach my heart to cling:
 Oh, let me seek Thee, and, oh, let me find!

Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart
By: George Croly, 1780-1860

Listen as you read.  This is a lovely piano solo version.

As we endeavor to be more resonant today we will spend some time cultivating our response to God’s love.  On Thursday we will turn our attention to the cross, the greatest expression of God’s love, but for today we are going to consider His love for us and the response it should evoke it us.  We want to be more resonant, allowing His purposes to echo freely in our lives, and considering His love is one of the best ways to nurture that.  Will you come with us on the journey today?

Bid

As we walk along through the ideas created by these hymn texts, often we have to stop and consider what a particular word means so as to ascertain the meaning.  Bid here is a wonderful example of such consideration.  Wonderful and complex.

The image above portrays the most common usage of bid today.  To make an offer in hopes of winning an auction.  eBay has made this an exhilarating addiction for some, but this has nothing to do with what the hymn is saying.

The most accurate usage is one that essentially means to beseech or entreat, but unfortunately those words only clear things up a little for they are pretty uncommon today as well.  This is essentially what God is doing, asking us urgently and fervently to love Him.  But not because He needs it.  One the contrary, because of the effect He knows loving Him has on us.  Loving Him opens the door to living a life of love.  Abiding.

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.  1 John 4:16 ESV

For this reason, I think two other definitions may even be more emphatic.  One is invite and the other is tell.  I think these are all true.  God certainly invites us to love Him, and He also commands it.

So it begs the question.  Are we learning to abide in His love, in Him?

Abide

And just what does that mean.  Abide means to continue in a place, so to abide in love, in God, means to continue in love, in God.  Abiding is life-giving, love-nurturing.  Consider this image.

When Jesus taught about abiding He used the image of a vine and it’s branches.  (See John 15:1-17)  This is beautiful concept.  If we remain in Christ, continue in Christ, He will remain in us.  So you see, there is a “bid” in “abide”.  There is an invitation in the continuation.

Jesus also taught in the Greatest Commandment that we should love all of God with everything we have.  Here is the telling part of the bidding.  He said it like this.

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’   Mark 12:30 ESV

So I just want to ask a couple questions to finish today.  Is there anything prohibiting you from staying in that place of love?  Are you harboring any unforgiveness, resentment or jealousy?  No.  Good for you.   But that is not enough.

If we are continuing in a place of love, we must bear the fruit of that continuing.  We must love.  Love is not only an idea and feeling, it is an action.  What have you done today to love others?  Are you being diligent to demonstrate love?  And here’s the tough one.  How have you demonstrated love to someone who is unloving, or unable to return the love?

Not sure how to advance the cause of love today?  Watching the video below will provide you with a few minutes to cultivate a life of love.  Please take advantage of this one which is available to everyone, not only subscribers.  If you can not watch it now, come back later today when you have 5:53.  It will be time well spent.

Honest Tuning!

Spirit of God, thank You for not only inviting me, but also telling me to love God.  And then helping me to do it.  I need you every day to abide in love.  Help me Spirit to do so with all my heart, soul, mind and strength.  In Jesus name.  Amen.

Like what you finding here?  Fill out the form to the right to get an email with each fresh post and updates of new tools to help you be Resonant.

Please comment below and share if you have found this helpful in your journey of being more resonant.

Below is content normally available only to Subscribers.  Want to learn more about accessing all the additional material in the Subscriber Content Library, click here, or the Free Member Content Library with some examples of the Subscribers content, click here.

Everyone, please enjoy this video log!  And the transcript below!

Video 6.3 Transcript

Welcome to Tuesday Tunings at Resonant 7, where we reflect on the reality of God and resolve to let it resound in our lives, repeatedly. Let’s tune our hearts.

Hast Thou not bid me love Thee, God and King?
 All, all Thine own, soul, heart and strength and mind.
I see Thy cross; there teach my heart to cling:
 Oh, let me seek Thee, and, oh, let me find!

We start with a rhetorical question. Yes, God has urgently pleaded with us to love Him, not because He needs our love, but because He knows that affection inclines us to things that are good for us.  Thank Him for bidding you to love Him.

And then the repeated word, ALL.  When a writer repeats something it is important.  How should we love? By giving God all our prayers, passion, energy and intelligence.  Ask the Holy Spirit to help you love Him with everything you are.

The cross teaches us to deny ourselves.  If we are to love God with everything, we must learn self-denial.  Ask Jesus to teach you how to hold fast to the cross.

Deuteronomy 4:29 says “You will find [God] when you seek Him with all your heart and all your soul.”  The hymn writer offers a simple prayer. Echo that prayer, “God, let me seek You.”

Take a few moments to talk to Jesus about what has surfaced in your heart, or just listen to what He is saying to you, then we will sing once more.

Sing

Take the awareness of God’s presence cultivated in these last few minutes into the next ones and beyond.  Until next time, be Resonant.

Image Attributions
Bid – https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/indl-goods/svs/steel/numetal-restructured-to-become-eligible-to-bid-for-essar-steel-coc/articleshow/65958320.cms
Abide – http://handmeanotherbrick.com/2017/03/09/spiritual-service-and-abiding/
Questions – https://giphy.com/gifs/book-library-literacy-l0HlRnAWXxn0MhKLK

I ask no dream, no prophet ecstasies,
 No sudden rending of the veil of clay,
No angel visitant, no opening skies,
 But take the dimness of my soul away. 

Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart
By: George Croly, 1780-1860

Listen as you read.  This is a nice string quartet version.

So our stanza this week takes through a list of things we at first might be inclined to seek, but instead offers us a better alternative when considering the work and presence of the the Holy Spirit.  There are some interesting images conjured through the list and we will consider each as we tune and think.  Won’t you come along as we continue to consider how we might welcome the work of the Heaven-Descended Dove?

No Dream

Look at the little one sleeping peacefully.  All snuggled up and ready for a night of rest.  Maybe there are visions of sugar plums dancing in her head…maybe not.  What’s wrong with asking for a dream?

This is an interesting stanza, left out of many occurrences of the hymn.  It is a litany of things we do not want which builds to a crescendo culminating in the thing we do truly need.  In lieu of what we really need, God give us no nightly visions, or prophetic thrills.  What makes it interesting is that dreams, visions and prophesies are actually promised by God when He pours out HIs Spirit in the last days.

“‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; Acts 2:17 ESV

Though they are promised, we will not ask for them.  Why?  Because there is something better in the estimation of the writer.  What is that something?  Well, interestingly it is something that seems far less dramatic than all the things this stanza commits to NOT ask for.

And prophet ecstasies, those can be pretty dramatic.  Even though they should always line up with Scripture and point us to Christ and His cross, this faith we have has a prophetic side to it.  Take for instance the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:2 when he mentions knowing a man who was taken up to the third heaven.  Say what?That sounds like a pretty incredible journey, yet we are invited to ask the Lord NOT to give us these kinds of ecstatic, prophetic experiences.  Why?  Because there is something even better we can ask for according to the writer.  What is that something?  Well, let’s keep going.

Veil of Clay

First, clay does not make a very good veil, unless of course you want to see nothing at all through it.  Second, that is exactly what the stanza is referencing, but obviously there is no actual clay involved in the imagery created.  We are the clay, or more specifically our flesh.

Our flesh is a great weakness.  It seems it would have helped if when sin was defeated, our flesh would have been eradicated, or at least torn to pieces, but God had other designs.  He chose to put something of inestimable value, the light of the Gospel, in these jars of clay that are our bodies, as in says in 2 Corinthians 4:7.  To that end, it seems like tearing the curtain of or flesh so that the Gospel can be put on full display would be a great idea.

And then there is the other perspective.  Not only does our flesh keep others from seeing the Gospel, it keeps us from seeing clearly the things of the Spirit.  It mars our perspective and limits our clarity.  Though it often keeps us from seeing him clearly, ask God to help you trust His better way and better time to address it the veil of clay that is your flesh. Do NOT ask Him to shred it so you can simply see more clearly, though you long for that day.

For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away…For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.  1 Corinthians 13:9-10-12 ESV

Submit your life to the Potter’s Hands again today (Isaiah 64:8), and ask for something better.  What?  We will think about that on Thursday after we consider a couple more things NOT to ask for.

Happy Tuning!

 

Spirit of God, I choose to forego asking for dreams and visions, so I can simply know the power of Your presence.  I choose to trust you to work through this earthen vessel, though I would love to be free of its clouding weaknesses.  Teach me what to ask for today. Jesus name.  Amen.

Like what you finding here?  Fill out the form to the right to get an email with each fresh post and updates of new tools to help you be Resonant.

Please comment below and share if you have found this helpful in your journey of being more resonant.

Below is content normally available only to Subscribers.  Want to learn more about accessing all the additional material in the Subscriber Content Library, click here, or the Free Member Content Library with some examples of the Subscribers content, click here.

Subscribers, please enjoy this video log!  Everyone else the transcript below!

Video 6.2 Transcript

Welcome to Tuesday Tunings at Resonant 7, where we reflect on the reality of God and resolve to let it resound in our lives, repeatedly. Let’s tune our hearts.

I ask no dream, no prophet ecstasies,
 No sudden rending of the veil of clay,
No angel visitant, no opening skies,
 But take the dimness of my soul away. 

This is an interesting stanza, left out of many occurrences of the hymn.  It is a litany of things we do not want which builds to a crescendo culminating in the thing we do.  In lieu of what we really want, give us no nightly visions, or prophetic thrills.

Our flesh is a great weakness.  It seems it would have helped if when sin was defeated, the flesh would have been eradicated, or at least torn to pieces, but God had other designs.  Though it often keeps us from seeing him clearly, ask God to help you trust His better way to address it.  

Maybe if an angel visited us, or God would pull the heavenly curtain back so we could see His glory, that would solve our problem.  Still the hymn writer believes there is a better remedy. Will you wait for God to work His plan?

And finally here it is.  The problem is not external, but internal.  God reveals Himself in a myriad of ways. Our soul simply often fails to be aware enough to grasp it.  Ask the Holy Spirit to sharpen the aptitude of your soul.

Take a few moments to talk to Jesus about what has surfaced in your heart, or just listen to what He is saying to you, then we will sing once more.

Sing

Take the awareness of God’s presence cultivated in these last few minutes into the next ones and beyond.  Until next time, be Resonant.

Image Attributions
No Dream – Image by stine moe engelsrud from Pixabay
No Prophet Ecstasies – Image by congerdesign from Pixabay
No Sudden Rending – https://gfycat.com/alertfirsticeblueredtopzebra

Spirit of God, descend upon my heart;
 Wean it from earth; through all its pulses move.
Stoop to my weakness, mighty as Thou art,
 And make me love Thee as I ought to love.

Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart
By: George Croly, 1780-1860

Listen as you read.  This is a nice string quartet version.

We begin our journey to greater spiritual resonance with some new material again this week.  The first line mentions our hearts specifically and the last focuses in on loving so we will begin there with today’s Tuning. On Thursday we will use our minds  to think about what it means to ask the Spirit to wean us from the things of earth and empower us with His might.  But first, let’s tune our hearts.

Spirit Descend

Spirit of God, descend upon my heart;

The obvious place to begin our Tuning is the start of Jesus ministry, moment the Holy Spirit came down and settled on Him at His baptism. (Luke 3:21-22) It was a confirmation of the pleasure of the Father in His Son.  The Spirit descended on Christ as a sign, not to do the work for which we need Him.

And what is that work?  To teach us all things and to remind us of everything Jesus has said, as recorded in John.

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.  John 14:26 ESV

We are welcoming the Holy Spirit to come and do that work when we sing “descend upon my heart”.  We want Him to come and make His nest in our intellect, will and emotions.  We want Him to rest there.  

And this is not a once in a while kind of request.  We need to routinely, but not in a religious way going through the motions, sincerely invite Him to come.  To come down from on high.  To make His home in the center of all that we are.

So do you do that?  Do you ask Him every day, several times a day constantly throughout the day to descend on your heart?  He wants to teach you new things and remind you of things you already know.  Ask Him right now to come and do His work in you.  Ask Him to teach you things you do not know, and remind you of things you do.

Seriously, do that right now.  And determine to do it regularly.

Asking Him to come is extending the invitation to teach and remind, but it is so much more than that.

Make Me Love You

 And make me love Thee as I ought to love.

The last line is an interesting one.  It seems counterintuitive with regard to love.  How can God make us love Him?  Is it love if we are made to do it?  

There are at least two things to consider here.  First, is the possible use of the word make.  And second, how God actually does that.

The word make has many meanings.  Look it up here.  I think you will be surprised.  The definition that I think is in use here is the one which means compel, or to cause to act in a certain way.  It is different than being made to do something as in being forced, but implies some of the same sense of not truly being in control of how we respond.

The reason I think we are compelled to love God is simply the response to coming to receive and understand His love for us.

And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.  Romans 5:5 ESV

What a beautiful image that is.  The Holy Spirit pouring God’s love into our hearts.  This makes our hope secure.

In other words, when the Spirit does His work of pouring God’s love into our hearts, our response is being compelled to love Him.  So what we are effectively asking the Holy Spirit to do is come and pour God’s love into us because when He does we will be compelled, or made, to love God.

And that is a very good thing because it is in loving God where we truly need His help, in this most important of endeavors, the pursuit of which influences all others.  Loving the Lord our God with all our hearts. Spirit help us.

Spirit of God, descend upon my heart.  Heavenly Dove, come down and make your nest in my heart.  Teach me what I do not know and remind me what Jesus has said.  Help me to love You by pouring the Father’s love into my heart.  In Jesus name.  Amen.

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Video 6.1 Transcript

Welcome to Tuesday Tunings at Resonant 7, where we reflect on the reality of God and resolve to let it resound in our lives, repeatedly. Let’s tune our hearts.

Spirit of God, descend upon my heart;
 Wean it from earth; through all its pulses move.
Stoop to my weakness, mighty as Thou art,
 And make me love Thee as I ought to love.

The third Person of the Trinity, described as the Heavenly Dove like at the baptism of Jesus, is invoked here.  In that occurrence He was a confirmation of the pleasure of the Father in His Son. What we long for is His enabling us to evoke a similar pleasure in the Father through our living.  Welcome Him.

Oh, that the Holy Spirit would help our hearts to manage without some of the things of earth of which we have become increasingly fond.  Oh, that we would sense His presence moving through every pulse of our hearts. Ask Him for these things.

We are weak, but He is strong.  What perfect vessels to put His glory on full display, ones that can truly take no credit for the work He does in them!  Humble yourself, by admitting your weakness, and His strength.

And here is where we truly need His help, in this most important of endeavors, the pursuit of which influences all others.  We must love the Lord. How? With all our hearts. Spirit help us.

Take a few moments to talk to Jesus about what has surfaced in your heart, or just listen to what He is saying to you, then we will sing once more.

Sing

Take the awareness of God’s presence cultivated in these last few minutes into the next ones and beyond.  Until next time, be Resonant.

Image Attributions
Spirit Descend Upon My Heart – http://eskipaper.com/love-white-dove.html#gal_post_28130_love-white-dove-1.jpg
Dove flying – http://eskipaper.com/love-white-dove.html#gal_post_28130_love-white-dove-1.jpg
Love Poured Out – https://breathedeeply.org/2014/02/27/love-poured-out-2/