Intertwined Hearts
“[For my concern is] that their hearts may be braced (comforted, cheered, and encouraged) as they are knit together in love, that they may come to have all the abounding wealth and blessings of assured conviction of understanding, and that they may become progressively more intimately acquainted with and may know more definitely and accurately and thoroughly that mystic secret of God, [which is] Christ (the Anointed One).” Colossians 2:2 Amplified Bible
Paul tells us that as believers our hearts should always be “comforted, cheered and encouraged”. Think about those words because they are very intentional and specific. It is clear that the Lord is speaking through Paul and He wants us to know that it is His intention that our hearts should constantly be comforted. Most of us spend the better portion of our day looking to be battling against all the negative things we hear and experience throughout our day.
The second word used to describe the heart condition God expects for each of us is “cheered”. Few of us start the day cheerful because we fill our early thoughts of the morning with the dread of what we anticipate for the day. How many people do you know that would describe their hearts as “cheered”? How many days would you be able to describe your heart with this adjective?
The third word is “encouraged”. Once more, my estimation would be that few people would say they were encouraged when they think about their day, let alone their lives. The older people get and the more jaded they allow their hearts to become as a result of the things of this life, the less encouraged they become. In fact, the opposite is usually the result; they become cynical and hardened in their hearts.
We are living in the grace, mercy, and love of Jesus Christ. We have every good thing in Him and the promise of His deliverance and victory in all things in this life. We should awaken each day filled with the heart that Paul is describing, one that is comforted, cheered and encouraged. This should be the norm for us. However, if we are honest with ourselves the opposite is more likely accurate. How many days do you wake up with a dread regarding the day in front of you?
Paul tells us here that as believers we should know those secret things of Christ. If we are not seeing those promises that are hidden from the world but revealed to us in Jesus, then it is likely that the hindrance and blockade for us lie within our own hearts. We need to knit our hearts closer to His. We need to make the deliberate effort to intertwine our hearts with Him on a daily basis. I can do this by starting each morning, not being worried about the things the day might bring, but instead with reading His Word and being with Him and thus intertwining my heart with His before I do anything else. The more time I spend with Him the better acquainted I am with Him. Then all those secret things that are hidden from the world and the flesh, all the things that will comfort, cheer and encourage my heart, will become evident to me.
J Todd Hostetler