When our youngest daughter was a toddler, just about every morning she would come into the living room, crawl up in my lap, lay her head on my chest, look up at me with those big brown eyes and say, “Mommy, I can hear your heart beeping.”

As I was thinking back to those mornings it was as if God whispered in my ear, “That is my heart’s desire for my children, that they would get so close to me they could hear my heart beat.”

One of my favorite names of God is Abba Father, Abba means Papa, He is my Daddy God and if you know Christ as your personal Lord and Savior He is your Papa, your Daddy God and you are I are his daughters. We are daughters of the King!

He loves us so much and He desires for his daughters to crawl up in his lap, put their head on his chest and listen to his heart beat.

We crawl up in his lap through prayer and tell him all our hopes, dreams, desires, fears, worries and sorrows, joys.

We can lay our head on his chest and hear his heart beat by opening up his word & reading with a desire to know Him better. When we get to know God better we learn who we are in His family tree. His word is where he reveals his heart to us.

I have asked myself over the past few months, do I know the Heart of Christ? Can I hear the heart beat of my Father? Am I carving out a special time every day to spend time alone in his word away from the distractions and demands of the day?

What about you? Are you making time to hear God’s heartbeat?

Are you aware that Christ desires to be your First love? He wants first place in your heart. In the book of Revelation Chapter 2: 1-4

“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:

The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this: [2] ‘I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot endure evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; [3] and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary. [4] ‘But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.

if we want Him to be our first love we must carve out time to cultivate our relationship with Him. To read His word, praying & listening His heart beat.

We can’t even allow our “service” for him to take first place. Our relationship with the Father must come 1st.

Worship & communion with him should come first and then our service for him will flow from there.

I believe He wants us to be consumed by His love.

If you are married or have ever been in love. Think back to when your love was new, Remember how you felt? Consumed is a good word.

We wanted to spend all of our time with that person.

We desired to please them and bring a smile to their face.

Thought about little things we could do to make them happy.

We wanted to know everything about them, their past where they had been and their future hopes and dreams.

We paid attention to their likes and dislikes.

We spent lots of time on the phone when we had to be apart.

Do we love Christ like that?

Do we desire to be in His presence? To spend time with Him?

Do we know what pleases Him?

Do we know what brings a smile to his face?

Do we know what thrills his heart?

Do we know what breaks his heart?

Do we know the heart of Christ?

Valentine’s Day can bring on a variety of feelings in a woman’s heart: expectation, anticipation, eagerness, but also feelings of loneliness, sadness, disappointment, discouragement.

But I have good news, whether you are happily married, unhappily married, divorced, widowed, single and hoping, single with no prospects for the future or single and content.

Whether you get a Valentine’s Day gift or NOT!

NO ONE CAN LOVE YOU LIKE JESUS CHRIST!

Husbands can disappoint and hurt us, friends sometimes betray us, kids will graduate or get married and leave home, even our service for Him will change, end, and begin again.

But the Heart of Christ is Forever Faithful and True.

God gave me an Acrostic for the word HEART that only scratches the surface of His heart

H – holy, honorable, humble, healing

E – extravagant, excellent, exalted
A – affirming, affectionate, abiding
R – redeeming, restoring, rescuing, rewarding, a place of refuge
T – true, trustworthy.

Have you been hurt and lost trust in someone? You can Trust the heart of Christ. His love is eternal. His love is enough.

Let’s Choose today & everyday to crawl up in our Heavenly Father’s lap, lay out head on his chest and listen to his heart beat and ask Him to help your heart beat in time with His…

In His Shadow,

Renee Peebles