Copyright 2020 Theresa Harvard Johnson
December 2, 2020
When I first came to the Lord, things were so simple.
All I wanted to do was experience the Lord, stand in His presence, hear Him and experience the hope of new life. In many ways my experience was like a new romance and I didn’t want that feeling of perfect euphoria to go away.
In those first few months, at least for me, it was like “perfect love, perfect acceptance and a perfect hope” had settled into my heart snuggly. Not every son has had this specific type of experience, but all who Love the Lord have experienced those moments of perfect love. And in those moments… God is simple! He is not the complicated deity “our maturity” makes Him out to be.
He really is the Lord of Matthew 11:28-30 which declares: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
In that first moment of salvation and the months that followed, I touched that place. I experienced an understanding of this passage in my salvation-innocence that I woke up this morning longing for the Body of Believers to experience afresh and anew.
When did we leave this place of extreme presence church? When the we begin relegating it to events, Sunday morning services and complicated steps on how to access God? When did it become a “how to” course?
HIS yoke is easy.
The one people create can be hard.
HIS burden is light.
The one people create can be back breaking.
Jesus confronted the wayward Pharisees and scribes on this by saying, “They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them (Matt 23:4).”
We have a generation filled with enacting cumbersome loads on the Lord’s sons. We have a generation that makes demands outside of what is spiritually reasonable AND what is SIMPLY required! We place burdens that are way to hard to bear on one another… when all that is needed to spiritually thrive is a “love so fierce for Him” that everything else fades in the background…. exiting stage left.
You see, sometimes all we need is a moment to remember or recall what “perfect peace” looks like. We need to remember the simplicity of our encounters that confirm our oneness with Him. We need those subtle nudges that declare “that all this extra stuff we do and say” will never be as powerful as surrender.
I’ve seen the look on an infant’s face when they are in the presence of perfect love. I’ve seen the joy that rises from small children when they are exceptionally cared for… and I know in those moments that I have seen “the simplicity of God” that meets me in those small, still moments like now. Can we linger there not only for self, but for one another?
The Lord wants this for His Bride, not the complicated nightmare human hands have made of his love. What if we could corporately enter this place… even for a moment and be changed? What if this is the hope for unity?
God help us all! Make our hearts simple again…
John 17:21 NIV, “I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father , and I am in you. And may they be in us …”
