The Open Heart

The greatest moment of our spiritual development will arrive when we can approach God and our fellow Christians with a totally open heart. I must tell you that being open does not mean revealing other personsÂ’ secrets. We are speaking only of ourselves and the place in our spiritual growth where all facade, make-believe, unfulfilled dreams and posturing is over, or at least we are ready for them to be over. We have a generation of both adults and children that have been so violated by sin that erecting mental walls has sometimes been the only method of survival. Sexually abused children will erect a wall of denial that blinds them to both themselves and others for years, if not for life. Many parents cannot handle honesty from their child so the child retreats behind the facts and lives only in a make-believe world.

The healthiest of all of us tend to see things as we want them to be rather than as they are. My Dad was an alcoholic and committed suicide when I was a teen. A healthy self-understanding was unknown to me for many years and only honesty with God saved me from destruction. By His grace I learned to be honest with God even when I dared not be honest with others. Because of this honesty with my Heavenly Father, I learned that I could not get away with anything that was impure. Repentance became a healthy way of life and slowly He taught me His wonderful ways of righteousness. Now I am sometimes so honest about myself I embarrass myself, but at least the gossipers have nothing to talk about.

We will always need to strive to be openhearted. Many times it is extremely painful and often others will abuse our honesty. “Remember, their abuse of your honesty can never match your abuse of your dishonesty.” Apostle Paul was so hurt within himself by his abuse of the Christians and his earlier rejection of Jesus Christ, that he wrote to the Philippian church about it. He exposed the very depth of his heart. He said, “Concerning zeal,” I persecuted the church, but “touching the righteousness which is in the law,” I am blameless. He confessed he was a religious hypocrite. But he did not end there. He proclaimed, “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.” (Philippians 3:7-8)

This kind of honesty would totally change the present church world. We are constantly trying to convince ourselves that we are something we are not, or that we are not what we are. Yet we wonder why depression is the scourge of this generation and that a pillbox is more valuable to us than our Bibles. Pride, arrogance and, finally, brokenness is always the result of dishonesty about ourselves.

E. Stanley Jones in his book entitled, Conversions, tells of conferences he used to have for Christian leaders and the upper echelon of the church. He called these conferences, “Ashram.” He always started the conference with the first session called “The Morning of the Open Heart” that would last as long as six hours straight. The confessions he told about were breathtaking. Bishops and senior pastors confessed they were backslid, sinful, cold, uncaring, unloving, waiting anxiously for retirement, etc., etc. But once the heart was wide open and honesty was revealed, God began the work of Calvary and Pentecost, and men and women erupted into new life and glory for Christ.

He wrote of the results of the converted being reconverted or renewed, or whatever you want to call it. He said of this converting of the converted, “You can now take life by handfuls, and heartfuls, and beingfuls.” Again, he said, “You are alive to life to your fingertips.” Are you? Is life drudgery or a slam-dunk? Are you full of Christ and His Spirit or are you struggling to keep your head above water?

Are you a positive thinking Christian that absolutely knows that your words are nothing but empty rhetoric or do you possess they joy of the Lord down to the moments you are all by yourself? You are really “what you are” when everything has gone wrong, and you are all alone, and its dark outside. Be willing to go to God and just say plainly everything you know and feel. Lay it on the line.

The secret of the “Open Heart” is not really a secret. It’s in the Bible. The Words of the Holy Ghost are powerfully simple and easy to understand. “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)

It is only when we have an “open face” that we can clearly see Him and His glory. Our dishonesty will cloud our spiritual vision but the open heart strips away all the fuzz. When we see Him by His Spirit, we will literally be changed from “glory to glory.” The word “glory” is not just a faith in the head but a faith in the heart. I believe that some of you will get down on your knees today and be strikingly honest with Christ and you will have revival before bedtime or at least before sun-up.