HEART OF THE MATTER

Tag: heart

  • GUARDING YOUR HEART

    GUARDING YOUR HEART

                    In the scope of our lives, there are things that has and will take precedence in our heart. As we go through life, we get attached to some of the things we experience and people we encounter. We have begin to develop a natural response to these things because they excite us or provide us with something that we desperately need. These things cause us to have a good emotional arousal, and we gravitate towards the things that makes us happy. These are things that may or may not be good for us, but they feed our flesh and captivate our hearts. Sometimes we seek things to fulfill us in the areas of depravity that keeps us bingeing on what it offers. When we allow things to settle in our heart, we begin to live from that desire or live for that desire. It is important to always examine the heart to see where you are.  David said, “search me God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139:23-24). The heart is the place where we store things, if we have evil things stored in our hearts it will be shown in our actions and therefore, we are judged according to our deeds. Jesus said, “out of the mouth the heart speaks.” (Matthew 12:34-40). Whatever has your heart has power over you. Those things that we love with a deep desire cause us to either fail or excel in life. The heart is the place God sees when he seeks. David was chosen because of his heart for God. “The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1st Samuel 16:7). David desired to keep a right heart before God. Even when he sinned with Bethsheba, he was quick to acknowledge and repent before God because he knew that a pure heart before God brings you into eternal rest. When we allow people to have our heart, they will possess a power over us that will make us feel defenseless towards them. People may or may not have good intentions when it comes to us and so we are vulnerable to the distractions and the disappointments in our lives.

                    God says to love him with all our mind, heart, and soul. When we love God with every being of our lives, the enemy has no weapon to use against us. Because even when we do right, it doesn’t mean that the other person or people have good intentions. A moment of weakness on their part could cause us a lifetime of pain when your heart is not with and for God. Power is produced when a person has a position of authority in your life. When Jesus was handed over to Pilate to be killed, Pilate said I have power to determine if you live or die. Jesus said, “you have no power over me, only what my Father has given to you.” (John 19:10-11).If you don’t bow down to God, you will bow to man.

                    Many of us want to be brave but find ourselves in battles that we desire to overcome. It’s a struggle because we have not learned to possess the power over that person or that position. We have developed a need for what they feed, and it causes us to have to bow or belittle ourselves just to have it. Your heart stores the matters of life so whoever or whatever has your heart has power over you. “Guard your heart because out of it flows the issues of life.” (Proverbs 4:23).

  • IN THE NAME OF LOVE

    IN THE NAME OF LOVE

    Love is a powerful emotion that causes people to do crazy things. We indulge in a feeling that brings us acceptance, value, and the warmth that we feel inside. We become addicted to the feeling rather than the person. We say we love so and so, but we are actually attracted to the feelings that come from being loved. When those feelings no longer give us what we want, the relationship is over. We’re off to our next quick fix. I know because I’ve been there. Love and loyalty lie in the same bed together. Many of us play silly games all in the name of love. We commit crimes for love. Some have even killed because of it. True love lets you live. I used to think that love was my boyfriend acting out in rage because of his jealousy. I often heard friends say, “Girl, he loves you.” Why not just say something is wrong with him, and it’s not love? Many of us stay in abusive relationships, facing physical and verbal harm. We say it’s because I love them. But search a little deeper and discover the void you’re trying to avoid. We must understand what love is. If we don’t, we will imitate the behaviors of those who have settled for mistreatment. I watched and walked that same path because it was all I knew. I have grown to understand that love without Christ is sadistic and twisted. Love hurts. And many people no longer want any part of it. God will not take away the very being of your existence. God is love. “The greatest commandment, love the Lord with all thy heart, soul, and mind. And the second equally important, love thy neighbor as thyself.” (Matthew 22:37-38). Since I found Christ, I learned something new, and I want to share it with you.

    Jesus Christ showed me what real love is, and love lets you live. God gave his only son to die on the cross because he loved us. God created us out of love (John 3:16) and is in love with us (Genesis 1:27). That’s why his patience is so long with our wrongs. “It is not his desire that his little ones shall perish but that they will all come to repentance.”(2nd Peter 3:9) God loves us.  Jesus Christ came to give us life, a real love life. I meditated on what love is. I drew on God’s Word and my interest in 1st Corinthians 13:4-8. This convinced and convicted me to change my understanding and actions. Love is not receiving; it is serving.

    “Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”(1st Corinthians 13:4-8). And I love God’s way better. With his way, I don’t have to be afraid of love.

    Love is powerful. Falling first in love with others rather than God will cause you a life of resentment. Love was intended to be the glue that holds us together to be better. It is not a feeling, it’s a focus. When we began to love the way the Lord intended us to, we began to see the value in ourselves. We also began to see the value in others. We are capable of loving without limits because there are no restrictions on love. And God’s love isn’t limited when it comes to loving us. LOVE. Give to others what you need more of.

  • Overcoming Doubt with Faith in God’s Word

    Overcoming Doubt with Faith in God’s Word

    Believing the word of God, whether written or spoken is instrumental to our walk of faith. God’s word is what moves us forward in times of difficulty and darkness. It challenges us to become what he says and not what we see. It compels us forward in faith so that we can believe without a shadow of doubt that God’s word and his will shall prevail in all circumstances. It is the promises of God that keeps us contending to fight the good fight of faith.

    The other night, I awakened early in the morning to pray and pour my heart out to God. I asked God about my heart condition and the heart condition of others. I asked the Lord, why had I become so frustrated in the matters of my life and the Lord spoke to me, “seeds of doubt.” Seeds of doubt causes frustration, anger, discouragement, anxiety, and panic. Of course, I cried and repented for not believing what God had spoken. God is who he says he is even when we cannot trace him, we are still required to trust him. Because what we seen him do, he still can do. Doubt will take you out when the Word of the Lord is not sealed in your heart. Psalm 119:11 says, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I may not sin against you.” Knowing what God has spoken and keeping his word in your heart will cause what he said to manifest. Because where doubt is faith cannot operate and “faith is what pleases God”. (Hebrews 11:6).

    The enemy is after the faith of the children of God. In the Garden of Eden, Eve believed God when he said we shall not eat from the tree of good and evil. And the enemy came and presented it in a way, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” The enemy came and sowed seeds of doubt. (Genesis 3:1-4.) And because Eve believed more of what she saw instead of what God said seeds of doubt were planted. (Matthew 13:18) “When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path.  The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy.  But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.  The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” The seed is the Word. God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? (Numbers3:19) No scene changes anything that God has spoken. We must hold on to the Word of God like our life depends on it, because our life depends on it.

    Rating: 0 out of 5.