I was talking about communion with friends in our home group the other day and it came up in conversation about the traditional act of examining one's heart before communion. A friend explained it as examining one's heart in order to repent and to reveal any unforgiveness towards other people before taking the bread and the wine. However, my understanding in the past was that it was an act of acceptance and openness towards God, so as we are not taking the elements lightly or glibly, but rather we remember the sacrifice that was made and invite God to forgive any of our hardness of heart.
Now I am very wilful and competitive at times; it's just the way I am wired. It does serve me well in certain circumstances but I need to keep my drivenness in check and be intentional in compassion and care of others. I need God's forgiveness, I need His grace, and I need Him in my heart. I just do. I need to examine my heart also to look at what I am holding onto in pride and self-centredness. God knows my heart. So in communion I just lay it down.
Either way, it is good to examine one's heart - not in a way that increases our guilt and shame but in a way that invites the grace of God. The blood and body of Jesus was not given up lightly, so neither do we accept it lightly. Jesus died for my sin - large and small, past, present and future. He died for your sin too. Not just a little peaceful death, but an agonising, long-winded, tortuous death on a cross. And now I wear a cross of diamonds around my neck. Beauty brought about under extreme pressure. Truly precious, and such a free gift. This is what I want to remember when I examine my heart. This is what I am buying into.
Either way, I think it doesn't really matter what we do in this pause before communion. Examining our hearts for unforgiveness, sin, or just remembering Jesus and the significance and gravity of the bread and wine are all valid postures to take. The Lord sees our hearts and tests our thoughts and motives.
Romans 3:21-26 TPT
But now, independently of the law, the righteousness of God is tangible and brought to light through Jesus, the Anointed One. This is the righteousness that the Scriptures prophesied would come. It is God’s righteousness made visible through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. And now all who believe in him receive that gift. For there is really no difference between us, for we all have sinned and are in need of the glory of God. Yet through his powerful declaration of acquittal, God freely gives away his righteousness. His gift of love and favour now cascades over us, all because Jesus, the Anointed One, has liberated us from the guilt, punishment, and power of sin!
Jesus’ God-given destiny was to be the sacrifice to take away sins, and now he is our mercy seat because of his death on the cross. We come to him for mercy, for God has made a provision for us to be forgiven by faith in the sacred blood of Jesus. This is the perfect demonstration of God’s justice, because until now, he had been so patient—holding back his justice out of his tolerance for us. So he covered over the sins of those who lived prior to Jesus’ sacrifice. And when the season of tolerance came to an end, there was only one possible way for God to give away his righteousness and still be true to both his justice and his mercy—to offer up his own Son. So now, because we stand on the faithfulness of Jesus, God declares us righteous in his eyes!
Romans 12:1-2. TPT
Beloved friends, what should be our proper response to God’s marvelous mercies? To surrender yourselves to God to be his sacred, living sacrifices. And live in holiness, experiencing all that delights his heart. For this becomes your genuine expression of worship. Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in his eyes.
Examining the heart is important as is remembering/ grappling with what it is, exactly, that Jesus did for us on the cross. And maybe my friend was right with the forgiveness thing as it is important to also take it all that one step further - to examine how, exactly, we are responding to that. Lord, how much of my heart do your really have? We all do fall short of the glory of God. Lord, I pray that by your grace, you would help me to give your a little more of my time, my attention, my worship and my heart.
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