An Uncovered Life-Monday, January 10

An Uncovered Life (By Pastor Kevin Holt)

Scripture Reading: 2 Corinthians 3:17-18

19th century American pastor and author of the Christmas carol O Little Town of Bethlehem, Phillip Brooks, once noted in a Lenten sermon that fasting is “an expression of repentance and uncovers the life to God.” That statement struck me in a profound way. Exactly what does it mean to have one’s life uncovered or exposed before God?

I suppose as a first step to answering that question it would be good to be reminded of what precisely it does not mean. It does not mean that there are aspects of the life of the unrepentant or the carnal believer that remain hidden from God. He indeed is the One who tries the very reins of men’s hearts, knows every thought that originates in their minds, and is aware of every word spoken before it is even formed on their tongues. A sudden awareness of that which was previously unknown of the human heart cannot be what Brooks had in mind. Rather, I believe, he is describing in the notion of “an uncovered heart,” the open invitation of the life to the moving and working of the Spirit of God. Fasting is indeed just that, the spreading of the welcome mat to the One who stands at our heart’s door, knocking and longing to enter.

When the life is uncovered and God is invited to enter through fasting, great opportunities and powerful possibilities emerge. Past hurts, deep disappointments, painful scars, and buried memories which when uncovered, bring to the surface hidden emotions, destructive bitterness, and crippling wounds, find healing in God’s presence.

In addition, the uncovering of our life to the Spirit of God causes the potential for greatness to arise. Only when the walls of self-indulgence, self-love, and self-preservation are removed can the Spirit that raised Christ from the dead have full sway to embolden, empower, and enliven the feeble efforts to achieve excellence carried out by those whose hearts remain insulated from the work of God. A life uncovered in the presence of God bursts with unlimited potential.

Likewise, the life uncovered before the Spirit of God is a life that becomes more beautifully transformed into the likeness of Christ. When through fasting we uncover ourselves to God’s marvelous work, our hearts, previously conformed to our own fleshly and selfish desires and the alluring magnetism of a sensual world, become instead tenderly handled by the Spirit’s gentleness and divinely fashioned into the likeness of our Savior. Hearts safely kept from tender vulnerability may remain fortified against the hurt that others can inflict, but will also tragically remain beyond the reach of the gentle Spirit who desires to bring holy transformation.

Fasting is crucial in the life of the believer. It demands an uncovering of our lives to God. It is in that uncovering that broken hearts are made whole, divine potential is realized, and the character of Christ is produced in us.