Above all else, guard your heart -- for everything you do flows from it. Proverbs 4:23
How often do we think about our heart? How often do we guard our heart? Or our childrens?
In Proverbs we are told by Solomon, the wisest man to live, to guard our hearts above ALL else. There's something about the heart. When you think of the body, it's the life -- it keeps life moving. Beating. When you think of our minds, our self, the heart is a critical part of us -- who God made us to be.
In Proverbs we are told by Solomon, the wisest man to live, to guard our hearts above ALL else. There's something about the heart. When you think of the body, it's the life -- it keeps life moving. Beating. When you think of our minds, our self, the heart is a critical part of us -- who God made us to be.
And, yet, so often, we leave our hearts vulnerable to attack.
Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and the anxieties of life...Luke 21:3a
This verse always shocks me. I'm intrigued that the anxieties of life are part of the three things that weigh down our hearts. And, yet, they do. I've experienced it in my own life. Even now. My load felt heavy. Paths in front of me seemed distorted, and in some instances -- impossible. My heart, my mood, had become anxious. Nervous. Lacking faith.
My heart hurt.
Instead of filling my mind with truth -- I allowed it to run wild with worry. With fear. With anger. Of not speaking the truth. Not speaking up. Dwelling on the now. Sitting in overwhelm.
That's not faith. That's worry. That's fear. That's doubt.
Faith is different.
I want to live out of faith. Even though situations in my life may seem impossible or overwhelming. Living in faith cultivates joy -- not of myself. Is it easy? No. Often it's a struggle of releasing those tendencies to worry, anxieties, regrets, anger, and more to the Lord. Somehow I try to cling to these -- and yet, the very act of gripping hurts me. And my heart. So I pray to let these thoughts, these patterns, go. And then I pray for God's peace to permeate the corners of my heart. And with that, joy returns -- a joy that is not dependent on circumstances, but on faith. In the midst of a storm, or waiting, or the daily grind of life, there can be joy.
Authentic joy.
Authentic joy.
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:16-19
