‘Is there room in your heart
For God to write His story?’
(Casting crowns)
I like the idea of life as a story-His Story. So this question made me stop & think. It’s from the lyrics of a Christmas song from Casting Crowns. Echoing the words of the inn-keeper who had no room for the baby Jesus, the lyrics ask if we have room in our hearts to allow God into our lives.
Our lives are like an empty page without God, waiting for the Author to write.
If you haven’t invited him into your life, He’s patiently waiting. It’s as if He is standing at the door knocking (Rev 3:20)
Even in these surreal days of global lockdown:
‘In a world that’s figuring out how to open back up, you’ve got to keep figuring out all the ways to keep your heart open to God.’
(Ann Voskamp)
As COVID spreads, we try to keep our lives open & we are connected by stories:
‘The universe is made of stories,not atoms’
(Muriel Rukeyser)
‘We are all storytellers. We all live in a network of stories. There isn’t a stronger connection between people than storytelling.’
(Jimmy Neil Smith)
Even in difficult dark days, God can write His story & bring meaning to our lives:
‘Things can change. People can change, stories can change, lives can change.’
(Ann Voskamp)
Sometimes changes are tiny, almost imperceptible:
‘Small things don’t always turn into big things.
But all things begin small,especially in the Kingdom of God.
Acorns become oak trees.
Embryos become President.
Life starts with breath.
Love starts with a Hello’
(Emily P Freeman)
What makes the difference?
Listening to God:
‘I began to listen to His Word while I ran and I let God’s Story in me play louder than any other story around me.’
(Ann Voskamp)
We can try to listen to God’s gentle whispers rather than the noise all around.
After all,God is the One who knows the beginning & the end of our story:
‘You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.’
(Psalms 139:16 NLT)
We can be grateful that God uses our story as part of His grand epic story.
‘I’m thankful we have a God who sometimes chooses to tell his big story in small, delightful, quiet ways’
(Emily P Freeman)
He writes the story & we can share it.
‘Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story’
(Psalms 107:2 NIV)
‘When we submit our lives to what we read in Scripture, we find that we are not being led to see God in our stories but our stories in God’s.God is the larger context & plot in which our stories find themselves’
(Eugene Peterson)
‘The God who made us,on purpose,for a purpose,with great love, has laid out a plan for your life,& for my life’
(Shauna Niequist)
When times are hard, when a deadly pestilence is a daily reality, we can still trust God with our story:
‘Everything’s going to be okay-
because the Word Himself walks into our story and walks with us,
until the story ends in His time, in His ways,
for our ultimate good and for His ultimate glory-
and that is why everything’s going to be okay.
And if everything’s not okay yet,
everything’s not over yet.
(Ann Voskamp)
We can grip onto His promises:
‘Even when the future is unknown, our purpose is not.’(Rend Collective)
God always sees the big picture:
‘No book is a chapter,
no chapter tells the whole story,
no mistake defines who we are.
Hope makes our lives page turners.’
(Bob Goff)
There is always hope:
‘When you invite God into the story he does so much better than you could do in your own strength’
(Cory Asbury)
We live in a story of more than happiness:
‘In Christ we live a narrative of joy’
(Emily P Freeman)
So, today, here & now
‘You, as you are right now, were written into the Story from the beginning and you have a place here’
(Sarah Bessey)
‘Is there room in your heart
For God to write His story
You can come as you are
But it may set you apart
When you make room in your heart
And trade your dreams for His glory
Make room in your heart’
(Casting crowns)
Blessings,
Ruthx
Blessed! 