SAINT ALPHONSUS LIGUORI, BISHOP AND DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH

The Lord used to speak to Moses face to face.

What a privilege it must have been for Moses to have such a close relationship with the Lord! Anytime he wanted, he could enter the meeting tent that housed the ark of the covenant and have a personal, face-to-face encounter with God (Exodus 33:7-11).

Have you ever thought about how different your life might be if you could have your own face-to-face encounters with God? Just imagine the questions you might ask if you could look him in the eye and hear him speaking to you “as one man speaks to another” (Exodus 33:11)!

But the reality is, God is not satisfied with just speaking to you face-to-face. He wants to speak to you heart to heart. This amazing truth is, in fact, at the core of the good news of Christianity. Jesus rose from the dead so that he could send his Holy Spirit into your heart. He overcame every obstacle that kept you from knowing him personally—not just sin, but fear, shame, and everything else.

God promised this heart-to-heart relationship centuries ago. Speaking through the prophet Jeremiah, he vowed that he would plant his very word—his thoughts and his desires—into our hearts (31:33). And that is exactly what he has made possible through his Spirit.

God poured out the Spirit so that you could know his love and affection for you, not just know about it (Romans 5:5). He gave you the Spirit so that you could experience God not just as your creator but as “Abba,” your Father (8:15). Through the Spirit, you can not only read about his thoughts and desires in Scripture, but they can also become your own.

Heart to heart. This is the great privilege available to every person who is baptized into Christ. Why not dedicate this month to asking the Spirit to reveal God’s heart to you as you pray?

“Come, Holy Spirit, and draw me into my Father’s heart!”

Exodus 33:7-11; 34:5-9,28
Psalm 103:6-13
Matthew 13:36-43