"Enlarge my heart!" This is the cry of David the Psalmist in Psalm 119:32: "I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart!" I have really benefitted from our ESV study Bible, which notes that David is asking for God to make his heart broad, to expand his ability to perceive God's truth. And I particularly love the exclamation point at the end of the verse. As an English major, we were taught to use exclamation marks sparingly since very few sentences actually justify that kind of enthusiasm and urgency, so I love that David chose to use that punctuation, which underlines the whole-hearted, imperative nature of his request.
Like the blooming Amaryllis in my kitchen window, I want my heart to stretch and yearn and grow and enlarge, that I might be able to know and understand God more deeply. If God were trying to pour the water of His truth through a straw, very little would go through, but if he pours it into a wide-mouthed river, all of it would fall into the river! I want my heart to be that wide, to be open and ready and stretched so that I can absorb as much of Him and his truth as possible. Stretching is painful; it's slow; there is no quick fix; results are not immediate. But the more we stretch, the more limber and liberated our hearts are to open wide the gates of our hearts. It is this enlarging of our hearts that gives us the freedom to RUN in His ways.
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