The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - God Is Waiting in Your Heart

Episode Date: January 20, 2023

Are you ready to let God do deep work in your heart? There are so many distractions and so many things that keep us busy in life. All of this can make it very difficult to enter more deeply into prayer, into conversation with God. Today, Jeff shares from his own experience and explains why it is so important to find time for God. Snippet from the Show If you have a hunger to know God, you have to go beyond wanting to. You have to make the decision to do it. Email us with comments or questions at [e-mail]. Text “jeffcavins” to 33-777 to subscribe and get Jeff’s shownotes delivered straight to your email! Or visit ascensionpress.com/thejeffcavinsshow for full shownotes!

Welcome to the Jeff Kaven Show, where we talk about the Bible, discipleship, and evangelization, putting it all together in living as activated disciples. This is show 306, God's waiting in your heart. And I hope you are having a wonderful day today. If not so much, I want to make it better. I'm Jeff Kavans, and thank you for joining me on the Jeff Kavens show, or every week we talk about things that are related to discipleship, Bible reading, growing in Christ, prayer, all of these topics, even the topic of simplicity, which is something that I am very attracted to and have kind of a relationship with St. Francis on simplifying my life. Hey, I want to talk to you today about something that has just been on my mind a lot. And when I, when I have something that's

been on my mind a lot and I'm thinking about, you know, a certain topic, I just feel kind of obligated to share that with you because it, it certainly is for me, but it could also be for you as far as growing in your relationship with the Lord maturing, finding clarity as to what God wants you to do in your life. And so I've entitled this show, God's waiting in your heart and we're going to talk about prayer and specifically we're going to talk about a level of prayer that maybe you are not used to. And you've never gone to that depth before of doing what I would call deep work in the heart, allowing God to do that deep work in the heart. You know, when your schedule gets busy and you are running around doing all kinds of things, whether it's

work or kids or getting ready, even for vacation. A lot of people get burned out getting ready for vacation or some kind of trip. There's just so much going on in life on so many levels. And our kids experience this too. Our high schoolers and college students, they experience this busyness. And all of us that are Christians, we know intuitively that we should be getting away with God, we should be getting away, and we should be praying in spending time with the Lord. Now, when I chose this as a topic today, the one thing I was thinking was this. Somebody listening to me today needs this in spades. Somebody listening to me today needs to hear this message because you are in the midst or about to make a serious decision.

a big decision that is life altering. And when you're facing big decisions that are life altering, you need to do things that are different, not just the regular, you know, laissez-faire, ca sarah, it's Tuesday. Wow. Okay, tomorrow's Wednesday. You need to zero in on the relationship with the Lord and talk to the Lord. By the way, as we get into this, if you do want the scriptures, which I'm going to share with you, you can get them absolutely free, notes. All you got to do is text my name Jeff Kavens, one word, Jeff Kavins, to the number 33777. That's 3377. And we will get you the show notes in perpetuity going forward, all right? I want to start off by telling you a little story about what happened to me one time and what I'm talking about today,

because I'm talking about, I'm talking about deep work in your heart, I'm talking about, you know, getting away and meeting God in your heart for serious decisions. in life. Before I came back to the Catholic Church, I was a pastor. And I knew that after reading and studying and praying, I knew that the Lord most likely was going to bring me back to the church. That's where he was leading me to come home to the Eucharist and the Blessed Mother and the papacy and the tradition and all of the good things that have been part of the people of God since the very beginning, the deposit of faith. I knew that if I was going to make this decision. It had to be the best decision I've ever made in my life. There was no room for error,

no room for mistakes. I didn't want kind of the Lord's will. I didn't want half of it. I didn't want a hint of it. I wanted to know, God, what are you calling me to? You know, Paul talks about letting the peace of Christ rule in your heart. And before I got away to meet with the Lord, which I'm going to explain here, I did not have any peace. Things were just, things were just going everywhere in every direction all at once. And God indeed was calling me back to the church, but the process at that point did not look like anything was happening because it just seemed like it was crazy. So I contacted a friend and I said, you know what, I need some alone time with God. I'm not talking about, you know, going up and sitting in the last pew at the church and sitting there and praying for an hour.

I need a deep dive here. I need to get away and I need to meet God in my heart, serious, big time, you know. And so they said, you know, and I was in Dayton, Ohio at the time, they said, we have a place in Texas outside of San Antonio. And it's a cabin, and it's in the woods, and there's thousands of deer all around, and it's very, very beautiful and peaceful. We'll give that to you for a week. if you want to go and talk to God.

So I took him up on it and I ended up getting my Bible and a couple of other books and I got some supplies, beef jerky, I guess, or something, you know, to live off the land. And I ended up flying to San Antonio, rented a car, drove out to this cabin and I mean I was out there. And I walked in, I had the combination, I walked in, I unpacked, and there I sat alone in this cabin in the woods, and I said, Lord, okay, I'm here. I'm here. Now, someone might say, well, couldn't you have heard God back in Dayton? Yeah, I suppose I could have. Why didn't you? Because I wasn't. It was just so busy. You see, when you study the life of Jesus, you start to see certain

patterns in his life. And one of those patterns is, is that when he prayed in the morning or the night, usually prayed morning in an early morning or at night, he oftentimes went away alone. in secret. And I think the reason he did that is because he needed to be alone with the father, but he also had some real serious stuff to deal with. And he wanted clarity, he wanted to know the heart of his father. And that's what I wanted when I went out to that cabin. The first day, to be honest with you, I just sort of sat there and I walked around the woods and I didn't get around to really getting on my knees and saying, Lord, what is it? But I spent a couple of days, actually, in reading scripture and praying and meditating. And about the third day,

I opened myself up to the Lord, and as I began to pray, I said, Lord, I need your will. I need the peace. At about the fourth day, I think it was, fourth, maybe fifth, this peace just flowed over my heart like hot butter. And I knew that God was calling me back to the Catholic Church. I knew it. I knew it in my knower. And I knew it in my knower in a way that I wouldn't have known it had I stayed back in Dayton. And so I couldn't even call my phone. I couldn't even call. I had to go to some other lodge and use the phone. And I called Emily and said, I think I've got my answer.

That God wants me to come back to the Catholic Church. And so when I prayed and I offered myself to the Lord and said, Lord, I need your peace on this decision, he gave me that peace. He gave me the peace. Now, if I hadn't gone out there to San Antonio and did the deep work in my heart that Jesus often did, I don't think I would have ever come to that conclusion that God was indeed calling me back. Now, after that, there were smaller things that happened where God was confirming it more and more, obviously, but that was the beginning of my coming back to the Catholic Church. There was one other time, I'll share with you real briefly, there was one

other time. And that was when I was a young man and I went to Israel for my second time. And as I'm talking to you now, I am in Israel right now, just finishing a pilgrimage. We've got wonderful people on the pilgrimage. And I told the person that was in charge of the trip, I said, I can't go home. I need to stay here. And she said, why? And I said, I'm going to go into the wilderness of Judea. I'm going to go into the wilderness of Judea for an entire day with some bread and some bread. some water, and I'm going to sit in the presence of the Lord, and I want to pray. And I did. And I had my wingtip shoes. I had my briefcase, and I walked all the way up into the wilderness of Judea, and I came into contact with all these backpackers who knew how to go on a hike.

I looked like a nerd, a Christian nerd, I guess you would say, going up into the wilderness of Judea, but God met me there in a powerful, powerful way. You know, Hebrews chapter, four in verse 12 says for the word of god is living and active sharper than any two-edged sword piercing to the division of soul and spirit of joints and of marrow and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart as i sat there praying in san antonio praying in the wilderness of judea the word of god got into my heart and began to direct me jeremiah seventeen ten i the lord search the heart and test the mind to give every man according to his ways according to the fruit of his deeds we're talking today about getting away and god's waiting in your heart for you he's waiting for

you right now and there's nothing as important in life there's two things one is the eucharist the other is deep work in the heart it is god waiting in your heart for you to talk you say man jeff I've never done that before. Is that odd? Is it uncomfortable? It could be. Just like meeting someone else out and, you know, and you can say,

we're going to spend three, four days together. You might feel a little uncomfortable. You don't know exactly what to say. You don't have a guidebook, you know, on how to do it. But you're offering yourself to the Lord. And listen, he's a father and he knows your heart. And he will meet you. You know, it's like going to a confession with a priest

and you don't know how to do it anymore. Just tell them, they'll walk you through it. Well, the Lord will do. that in spades with you. I want to continue talking about this. We're going to take a break. When I come back, I'm going to share with you some vital scriptures along these lines. You're listening to the Jeff Kaven show. Hi, I'm Father Mark Toops. Do you ever feel like you're asking God for too much in your spiritual life? The truth is, you're probably asking for too little. And if you'd like some help this Lent, opening up your heart to God to allow him to bless you

with all that he has for you, you should pick up the new Ascension Linton Companion Year A. This coming Lent, if you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you always got. If you'd like some help to go deeper, you'll need to ask for more. And this is what this year's journal is designed to help you with.

Each day, you'll get a word to focus on, a reflection to help you pray, some scripture to meditate on, and a prompt to help you quiet down, and listen to what God wants to say. to you. And each week, we feature a piece of original artwork as well as an original online video to help you in your prayer. I want to encourage you to be bold this lent, to ask God for more. Go to ascensionpress.com and order your copy of the Ascension Lenton Companion today.

God bless you. Well, thanks for returning. That means to me you're hungry. You're like me. You want to know the Lord more and more. I so like Jeremiah. You know, Jeremiah was a guy who spent a lot of time alone with God. And he said, in Jeremiah 2913, you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. That's what we're talking about today. We're talking about seeking God with all your heart because God's waiting in your heart. He's waiting for you and he wants to talk to you.

One of the things that I did when I spent that conversation, concentrated time with God before a major decision was I, beforehand, I went and I dug up a whole bunch of scriptures about direction and peace. And I typed them up and I printed them out and I brought them with me. So I had some scriptures that I really wanted to do like Alexio Divina on. And that was really, really helpful. But when you go on one of these deep dives, bring a Bible that you can write in and highlight because you're going to see things you didn't see during the busy days. You're going to be a little quieter. You're going to see things.

Jeremiah 1710 says, I, the Lord, search the heart and test the mind to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds. I like that. I, the Lord, search the heart. God will search your heart. He will clarify where you're at. What needs to change? What needs to be affirmed?

again Jeremiah said in 2913 I gave you this you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart that's the advantage of getting away is that it's all of your heart it's not giving God part of your heart as you're listening to a football game on the radio it is not praying while you mow the lawn all those things are good yay but it is all of your heart and if you have a hunger to seek God and you have a hunger to know God and you want to know his heart before a decision. You've got to go beyond wanting to. You've got to make the decision to do it and do it good. Isaiah 55, verse 6 and 7, seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts.

let him return to the Lord that he may have compassion on him and to our God, or he will abundantly pardon. Wow. I want you to just, if you're driving, don't close your eyes. Keep your eyes open on the road. But I want you just to listen to five scriptures that I want to read to you. And I want to read them to you in a way that it would speak to your heart about this topic. And what God may be asking of you to go away with him and to give him the time to do that deep work in your heart listen to this luke 1615 and he said to them you are those who justify yourselves before men but god knows your hearts or what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of god god knows your heart he knows your heart already matthew 2237 and he said to them you shall love the

Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your mind. Critical decisions will reflect this. When you have to make the big decisions, then that's the time to love them with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and your mind. You need to think, you need to listen, you need to dig, and be still and know that He is God. Matthew also said where your treasure is, your heart will be also. So when you get away on one of these getaway, Like we have just down the road here, we have a place called Potcham and Terrace, which is a big acreage that has, I think, like 13 to 16 hermitages, little small buildings that you can rent and you can go there for a couple of days. Almost every book I wrote, I went to a place like that, and I spent a couple days just asking God for his direction. Keep your heart with all vigilance for from it flow the springs of life, Proverbs.

423. And then finally, Jesus answered and said, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him. Listen, if you're a Christian, you've been baptized, filled with the Holy Spirit of confirmation, God's home is in your heart. His home is in your heart. It might be time to lock the doors. Invite him in, lock the doors, pull the blinds turn the TV off get rid of social media for a few days and just say to Jesus welcome home

I need to talk about my son I need to talk about my marriage I need to talk about our finances I need to talk about the peace in my heart I need to talk to you Lord about something that I've never talked to anyone about but I need the time will you listen Lord

one of the biggest complaints people have is someone's not listening they'll say you're not listening to me you just blab away but you won't listen to me i want to promise you this that if you go to be alone with the lord to do the deep dive the deep deep work in the heart he'll listen to you he's not rude he's not going to talk over you he's not going to put you down he will listen to you jesus will listen to you and you will gain a new perspective. Let me pray for you. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,

Lord Jesus, I thank you for my dear friend who is thinking about a decision now that needs to be made, a road that they need to go on, a right turn, a left turn, a decision that will affect the rest of their life. And Lord, I pray that you will give them that fortitude to make the decision to get away with you, even if it's for a day or half a day or a week, two days. an evening, and just to shut everything down and spend time with you.

Even sitting down and saying, Lord, I don't even know what to say, really. I'm here with you, though, Lord, please speak to me, speak to me, and allow me to hear your will and experience your peace. In Jesus' name, amen. I love you, my friend. I really do. And I'm going to be back from the Holy Land for the next show. And maybe I'll give you a little update on what went on there.

So far, so good. and I love you. Look forward to talking to you next time.