This week I went with my mom to her cardiologist. She’s in the process of getting tested to see if she has A-fib or not. Apparently your heart pumping too slow is just as bad as your heart going too fast, for when it’s too slow, it allows the blood to pool up — stagnate — and cause a clot to form. Of course, we know this could possibly produce a heart attack or stroke, which is why my mom’s doctor is checking it out. Heart blockages are not a good thing.
As I sat in the doctor’s office looking at all the posters about clogged arteries and such, I was reminded of something I’d read earlier this week by Laurence Freeman about sin. He says, “…if we see that sin is something that blocks us rather than being the breaking of a rule …. then we begin to see that God doesn’t punish us.” It’s not about the anger of the Lord falling upon us sinful people, it’s about a blockage keeping us from having a continuous relationship with Him.
What a wonderful analogy right before my eyes in this sterile room!
Sin stops the flow of life between us and God — it pools up like blood in an artery, makes a clot and gets in the way of us communicating back and forth with our Abba Father. It has nothing to do with any punishment from Him, for He is Love. (1Jn. 4:8) He’s not about trying to find fault with us, penalize us, or cause pain because of something we said or did. Now sometimes we may suffer the consequences of our own actions, but that’s simply the principle of sowing and reaping being played out. As Laurence Freeman also states, “Sin contains its own punishment.“
We merely create a heart blockage when we sin. Our hearts aren’t open and free to hear the Holy Spirit clearly and — as I’ve had some blockages of my own this week — we tend to not walk in the fruits of the Spirit much either. (Yes, my behavior in traffic situations this week have produced some rotten fruit out of me!) But…BUT…the good news is there’s an easy fix. An easy remedy!
Repentance clears out all the clotting! It’s quicker than any outpatient procedure and works better than a pacemaker! Repent and forgive. Blood will flow freely from our heart through our arteries when there are no blockages. So goes it with our relationship with God. (And yes, my friend, I did humbly repent!)
Hear me, dear reader, it’s not about punishment. It’s not about His love being withheld from you. He’s promised there’s nothing that could EVER possibly separate us from His love! (Rom. 8:38,39) (Yes, I was kind of shouting there!)
His life — His blood — is in us. May we fervently choose to remove any blockages hindering that precious flow in order to live as a living, breathing example of His heart of love on this earth.