Where is your heart? What condition is your heart in? I am not talking about physically but spiritually. Thinking back to my childhood I remember the saying “follow your heart and chase your dreams” and as the years have gone by those words seem to fade and the saying “think with your head and not your heart” comes to mind.
I have been challenged lately as I have noticed many of the things that I consume myself with on a daily bases are from my mind and have no real heart behind it; things that just need to get done in a day and ticked off the list. I find myself most days doing the same things over and over again, because they just need to get done. I am using a silly example now – dishes, yes they need to be done but could they perhaps wait for a couple hours while I do something more important. Could they possibly even wait a day?
I am reminded that Jesus is all heart. He wants our hearts and he wants us to operate from there too. If God is all heart then shouldn’t we be listening more to our hearts and souls, letting that guide us day to day in our daily tasks to allow room for God to move in our everyday lives. Leading with my mind for me has felt like I do everything by the book, am in the box, and for me I tend to put walls around me.
Leading from the heart allows me on the other hand to be more vulnerable, which is scary and intimidating but it makes everyday unique and different. You don’t think of the day as just another day but rather as an opportunity to see what God is going to do and how He is going to show up in ways that you never expected. I love the idea of everyday being an exciting one, an opportunity for God to show up and use me as His vessel as opposed to just getting through the day like every other day and constantly being ruled by what ‘needs’ to be done. By ‘needs’ I mean the things we tend to make priorities in our lives, the rues we set for ourselves of the way our household should be run etc., but could be shifted a little further down on our priority list.
I know there are duties and responsibilities in life that sometimes do just need to be done but I would love to be more focused on doing even those tasks with a little more heart and leaving opportunities in my day for Jesus to show up. There is one thing that I know for sure, and that is we only have this one life, this one life here on Earth to honor God, to follow dreams and passions, to live whole heartedly for the Lord and to let our decisions come from our hearts. We won’t always get the opportunity to love others the way we do here on earth, our children, our grandparents, our husbands and our wives.
In order for us to operate from our hearts we need to make sure that our hearts are humble, righteous, pure and holy. When our hearts are in tune with Jesus and are in love with Him, operating daily from that place, lives can be changed, circumstance can be turned around and Jesus shows up.
It is easy to write on a piece of paper think with your heart and not your head, but when it comes to things like finances and a job that you are desperately needing then it is hard. For me making decisions about my kids and our future is one of those where I get torn between my head and my heart. I want to challenge you today, as well as myself, that what if we had the mindset that everything in our life is already taken care of, our finances and our job is already lined up? If we truly believe that, it would be easier to follow our hearts with complete trust and faith in our God.
Remember there is nothing that scares Him, nothing that is too big for Him to deal with and ultimately knowing that in all things (up’s and downs) He has already won, so it will all work out; He will not leave you nor forsake you!
I leave you with these two verses to meditate on:
“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
Psalm 51:10
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”
Matthew 5:8
Father I pray for each one of our hearts this morning. I pray that we would be in right standing with you and man. Help us to live today whole heartedly and help us to operate from our hearts, with love and compassion. Lord, we invite you into our day and we ask that you would show up tangibly in our day, Amen.
