That's the gift of women. The greatest gift of a woman to a man is that she opens herself completely to him. She becomes vulnerable in doing so. We men share our minds with our women but they share their hearts with us - God made them out of a rib, which guards and protects the heart, so, we men can learn from this, from our woman, how to share our hearts.

     This is essential in our relationship with God. We can pray great, lengthy, intellectual prayers to God - prayers we swell with pride for after saying, but can we share our hearts with Him? One heartfelt prayer can do more to move God on our behalf than an hour long prayer from the intellect. "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" - fervent means "having or showing great warmth or intensity of spirit, hot, burning, glowing" in essence  - passionate! Passion comes from our hearts!  "And you shall seek Me and find Me, when you shall search for Me with all your heart". 

     Men typically have a harder time with this than women. We men tend to keep our closed and well guarded (unless we're watching our team win a National Championship). Women know instinctively how to love deeply. This is one reason we are invited to become His bride - we too are vulnerable, we too are the weaker vessel. Yet, you know when your wife or girlfriend talks to you and she shares all about her day in great detail? And she spends 20 minutes telling you about a two minute incident that happened to her?  And inside your mind you're trying super hard to concentrate and keep focused on what she's saying but your mind starts to wander anyway? It's because she's engaging you with her heart while you're engaging her with your mind - But know this - The Lord engages us with His heart, not just His mind. He tells us to love Him with all our hearts because this is how He loves us. If we go to Him all excited about some part of our day and we chatter on about it because we're so grateful- He loves it! I used to get excited about the beautiful Florida sunsets i was seeing. I would pull over to the side of the road, get out of my car, and worship Him.

   Sex becomes just an exercise in lust, for us men, when we only use our minds, but for women, it's "making love", not just sex because they give themselves completely to us - they engage us with their hearts not just their minds. I used to warn the teen-age girls i was counseling "you can't put a condom on your heart". It's why women will so quickly fall in love with their sex partner and it's also another reason God demands that we wait till marriage to do it. He wants us to become one in spirit, then soul, and lastly body, with our spouse - the culmination- the "piece de resistance" of a love that's much more than skin deep but heart felt. When sex involves our hearts, not just our minds, when it involves two hearts in love with each other - it's much sweeter and more satisfying. And likewise,  when we are intimate with the Lord, heart to heart, our relationship with Him is much sweeter and much more satisfying. He's opened his heart to you, why not open yours to Him? Just as we are meant to have relations with our wife - spirit, soul, then body, so are we meant to have relations with the Lord.  We first come to know Him spiritually- spirit to spirit - our hearts are raptured (ecstatic joy or delight) by Him first. We become enamored with Him. He captures our hearts and holds them captive with his love for us - till we desire Him and Him alone. Too many altar calls focus entirely on us, how sinful we are, how desperately we need saving - and this is good, but i wish - once souls bow before Him, in subjugation and surrender- i wish we would continue the altar call, this time focusing entirely on Him - How amazing He is, How, in all His glory and splendor- with His vast riches - He needs and desires us! We should extoll His wondrous love to those having their shame and guilt washed away. They go into the water dead to Christ but come out alive to Him forevermore! 

Part two in 5 days.....