A few weeks ago a ran into the son of a friend in another city not far from here. It was uncanny that I would connect with him in that way and I immediately sensed that God was in it and that I should be especially sensitive to what He might be doing. I quickly re-calibrated my purpose for that time and spent some time listening and being interested in the man God arranged for me to meet. He and his wife were delightful and interesting company. Our meeting has grown into a friendship that has been enjoyable and rewarding for me and I hope fulfilling and helpful for him. All of this grew out of something I believe God has shown me that I want to share with you now.
Here is the profound and life-changing truth: There are questions that lay in the bottom of our souls. These questions form who we are and what we do. In the Bible there is a proverb that says; “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”
Let me give you a couple examples of the kind of questions that are embedded deep in our souls. “Do I have what it takes?” “Will I ever be loved?” “Who will love me?” “Am I beautiful and desirable?”
I’m sure we all have questions like this that lay deep in our souls. When we are tired or lonely or suffering or rejected or afraid these questions come up out of a deep place in us and they tend to color and influence everything we do.
If you want to understand someone you want to get to know them well enough and listen to them carefully enough that you have an idea what these questions are. If you want to be wise you will quiet yourself and do what it takes to discover what those questions are in your own soul.
In other words the question that lies in the deep place in your soul profoundly influences your relationships and your decisions and how you see life.
When I met my new friend I was conscious of a powerful question that I have chosen to embed in my soul.
Now here is the powerful life-changing truth. If you change the question that lies deep in your heart, you will change your life. The best way to change that question is to find out what question God wants lying at the base of your affections as the great life-spring from which your actions and reactions come.
If the gospel is at the heart of God’s plan for this world the Gospel should inform the questions that influence our decisions and our lives. Over the years I have tried to reduce these questions to a couple and this is the result of my meditation. I am convinced that if you begin to regularly ask these questions of yourself you will experience powerful life change because these are gospel-driven questions. They are the questions that, I believe, God want us to continually ask of ourselves. Here they are:
Instead of asking: “Will I be loved?” ask the question; “Will I let God love me.” Hear the voice of Christ inquiring in the deep place in your soul every day; “Ken, will you let me love you.” Think deeply and sweetly on that. It is a powerful soul-question. (Read Romans 8 and Ephesians 3:14-21)
Here is another. Instead of saying; “Who will love me?” ask, “Will I let God love though me?” or “Who does God want me to love today.” (Read Mark 12:30-31)
What would happen if at the core of your soul every day you would ask gospel-driven questions; “Will you let me love you?” and “Will you let me love through you?” I think it would transform your life. You will meet new friends. You will continually be attentive to ways that God is guiding you and loving you and you will continually be open to people that God has placed in your path to love. It will change your life. Don’t waste your life wondering who will love you. Let God love you and let God love through you every day.
Center your soul on those questions:
Will I let God love me today?
Will I let God love through me today?
Get going now and let me know how it goes.
Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
July 21, 2012
