The Unchanging Need of the Human Heart
Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other. (Isaiah 45:22 NIV)
We of the twentieth century have exactly the same basic needs as the people of the first century. We feel the weight of sin and mortality just as they did. We long for peace and life eternal exactly as they did. We are tortured by fears, stunned by losses, grieved by betrayals, hurt by enmities, made heartsick by failures, scared by threatening death, chased by the devil and frightened cold by the thought of coming judgment. They sat in their simple houses and worried by candlelight. We speed along in sleek, shiny cars and do our worrying between stoplights. But the end result is the same for everybody: slow progress backward toward old age and the grave with no place to hide and no friend to help.
God called His Son's name Jesus because He knew the human race needed deliverance from sin; and He sent the angels to announce "Peace on earth" because He knew the world needed deliverance from the gnawing tooth of inward fear. And nothing basic has changed. We today need Jesus, and we need Him for the same reasons they needed Him 2,000 years ago. The more things change, the more they remain the same.
Prayer
It is in You, O Lord, that I find life, forgiveness, peace and joy. In You!
Thought
That inner need of heart remains the same despite the radically changing world. As Charles Wesley put it: "Thou of life the Fountain art, freely let me take of Thee; spring Thou up within my heart, rise to all eternity."
Used with permission.
