This morning I was just worshipping the Lord, not praying, not studying, but loving on Jesus. I love the Word and prayer, but those things really seem to flow out best when I just start my day in worship. This morning after I had been worshipping awhile, I began to sing the words, “Expand my love for You.” I just kept singing it and all of a sudden I literally felt like my heart was expanding. It caught me off guard because what I was singing was for a spiritual transformation, but I began to feel it both spiritually and in some physical sense. I guess when David said, “My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God,” in Psalm 84:2 that’s what he was talking about.
As I felt the expansion, I kept singing, “Expand, increase my love for You.” All of a sudden I had a vision and it was as if I could see inside of me. I didn’t see flesh and blood, but it was like inside my chest was expanding and I saw the inner wall of my body. There were all these little pouches like you might find in a purse or a tool belt. I could see that God was filling each pouch with a person. He was just tucking them down into the pouches.
I realized that God was showing me what He was doing in the midst of my worship. As He was increasing my love for Him, He was also increasing my love for others. His love increasing in me literally equips me to carry more people in my heart in love and prayer. This is an inner work. True love and service flows from the work done within us. Paul prayed for the church at Ephesus that they would be, “…strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man…” (Ephesians 3:16) The inner man!
We have so often been trained to perform through our outer man. We need change, so we change the way we look, dress, do our hair. We change the way we talk, act or serve. We may convince others that we’ve changed. We may even convince ourselves that we’ve changed, but God is after the me no one else sees. I don’t want the “form of godliness” without its power for a transformed life. Transformation and the renewal of my mind are an explosive work of God in my inner man. Do it God! Expand my love for You and let all I do for You flow from that place. Do the work on the inside of me. Make me love like You do.
Comments