But the much of the world would have you believe otherwise.  Yes, the world and the Devil would want you to think that your true hopes, your inner feelings, are not important to the grand scheme of God.  That he’s got bigger and more important things to care about.  That he’s a Father too wrapped up in his work of “saving the world” for him to really notice one of his kids in the corner, crying.

This is the best lie Satan has offered us – and we’ve bought it.

We’ve bought the notion that God makes us as purely rational, emotionless, detached brains – and that all the emotions we feel are the whims of the flesh – something to be suppressed and conquered.  If that’s what the heart is for, we should go ahead and cut all the Psalms, and most other parts of the bible straight out.  But thanks be to God – your heart matters.

So how do you engage your heart as a means of connecting to God?

• When you approach God in prayer, start by approaching yourself. Let your own heart be a starting place for conversation with God – “the water cooler” topic between you and your Creator is “How ’bout them emotions?”
• Start each journal entry with “God, this morning, I feel ___(insert emotion here)__ .” Maybe you can go on to explain why, or maybe you have no idea at all.  Just be honest with the LORD.
• When you feel you’ve laid all the cards of your heart out on the table in prayer before God, sit for a moment in silence and emptiness and then ask, “What do you have to say about all of this?”

Funny thing is, he wants that honesty more than any words of empty praise you could offer him.  It offers a kind of translucence in your dialogue – a frankness that cuts through the rout prayers and the laundry lists that block you from true communion with God.

Live your whole day aware of your heart.  When you are angry, notice what’s happening inside and offer that up to God, when happy, or when sad… he cares.  Your heart matters.

In fact – it is your heart that matters most to God. Rescuing our hearts has been God’s project from the beginning – after the Fall, humanity finds our heart distant and blocked from God’s heart.  The process of redemption is learning to cross the chasm and authentically share our true selves with God – and in that intimate moment of full self-disclosure, we can have faith that God’s whole heart will be revealed to us as well.

Your heart matters more than you can ever imagine.

It just means the first insurance you bought wasn’t good enough.

We do the same thing with God – if God is our ultimate trust – more than just an insurance policy, but the largest thing we can hold onto in our lives, and we toss in some “functional saviors” (coined so perfectly by pastor Tim Keller) are we really content with the power of God?

What are your “functional saviors?”

For the Jews, it was all the things they couldn’t have under the Law of Yahweh.  According to the Law, they couldn’t eat pork, so what’s the first thing you go for when life turns sour?  You got it – a greasy bag of pork rinds!

God laments in Isaiah 65:

65:3 All day long they insult me to my face

by worshiping idols in their sacred gardens.

They burn incense on pagan altars.

4 At night they go out among the graves,

worshiping the dead.

They eat the flesh of pigs

and make stews with other forbidden foods.

11b …you have prepared feasts to honor the god of Fate

and have offered mixed wine to the god of Destiny…

Do you have to realize you’re dividing up your trust among idols – considering God “not-enough?”  No – I think there are lots of things that become our functional savior that we don’t even realize.  Let these questions from Darrin Patrick help expose the ‘other gods’ in your life:

• What do I worry most about?
• What, if I failed or lost it, would cause me to feel that I did not even want to live?
• What do I use to comfort myself when things get bad, or difficult?
• What do I do to cope?  What are my release valves?  What do I do to feel better?
• What preoccupies me?  What do I daydream about?
• What makes me feel the most self-worth?  Of what am I the proudest?  For what do I want to be known?
• What do I lead with in conversations?
• Early on, what do I want to make sure people know about me?
• What prayer, unanswered, would make me seriously think about turning away from God?
• What do I really want and expect out of life?  What would really make me happy?
• What is my hope for the future?

God is interested in being your only trust – your only investment – your only insurance.  Give it a try – throw off the other “blankets” that wrap around your trust in God – it is amazing how light the burden will become.

Our Micro is really blossoming in some wonderful and formative ways.  (Read more on the Micro Layer.)

It began with going strictly by the LTG brochure you can read all about on CMA’s website, 25-30 chapters of God’s Word each week, 10 character-conversation questions (accountability) and praying for the “sojourners” in our lives.  We then tossed in some material from CO2 (Church of 2), learning to tap into what is going on in “my heart, your heart, and God’s heart.”  We found both of these structures helpful and we flow pretty seamlessly between both of them.

We read plenty of God’s Word. We use YouVersion.com‘s free, customizable Reading Plans to stay in sync with each other – each day reading the same Scriptures and dwelling in the Word – letting God speak to us as we cultivate a spirit of “listening prayer.”

We check in with each other…as close to daily as possible. At the end of our reading and journaling, we take 5 minutes to write an email to the group – writing what we thought about, prayed about and heard from God during our reading.  It gives us a daily “check-in” opportunity, even when we are not meeting up with each other in the flesh.  When we meet up once a week, we don’t have to spend all our time going over the minute details of our life because we already know!  Instead, we check in spiritually -

“What are the deep issues of your heart, today?” “What are you hearing from God?  What are you doing about it?  How can we help you?”

We usually have more than enough to share with each other!

We confess sin to each other. Each week we ask, “Is there anything we need to confess today?”  Sometimes its sin that is shared, other times its a testimony!  When sin is confessed, the others listen closely to the one confessing, and when everything is said, they respond by saying,

“I hear what you are saying.  You’re right – this is sin, and wrong…but God forgives you.”

Hearing these words is like salve to the soul…

We pray for harvest workers and for the lost in our city. We meet at 9:00am-10:30am each week – and at 10:02am our cell phone will chime reminding us to pray the pray we read in Luke 10:2 - “Pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest to cast out workers into his harvest field!” We take a few moments to thank God for what he is doing in Chicago, and to plead that God open up the hearts of those we know who are searching for truth.

After 9 months – this is what our Micro looks like.  It has embedded within it the seed of a faith community – and while our group may not look exactly like others that start, our rhythms can easily be passed on and re-molded in countless ways.  Have you thought of trying it?  It’s AWESOME!  More and more Micros are starting in our house church network all the time, and I believe it makes us healthier.

I wouldn’t give up my Micro for anything – it is a chance to be real.  It is a band of brothers.  It is the core and starting place of mission.  It is life transforming!