Have you noticed how commercialized Valentine's Day is getting? Everyone is trying to add a heart theme to their advertising this month. Or romance. Or things cute and cuddly.
Well, I'm waving at you to come follow me. I'm going down a completely different path concerning hearts. Your heart. Mine too.
Proverbs 4:23 NIV says, "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." Guard it from what? You think I'm referring to heart disease, do you?
Nope. Serious as that is - for I watched my mother die of congestive heart failure - not pretty I tell you! No, I'm talking now about the spiritual dimension, where the condition of our heart will affect how we spend eternity.
Our heart is the poetic term for our spirit, a third of our composite being which came from God and communes with Him. Or else turns away and grows cold and calloused towards Him, and if so, gets sent to the place of continuous dying.
God made Adam out of the earth and breathed into him (spirit) and the result was a human soul, that part of us that has a unique will and personality. If it were not for the soul, the spirit (life) would have no way of expressing itself through the body's senses.
Ultimately, God planned that our spirit should be in sweet fellowship with Him, and by the soul and body given it, express that fellowship in lovely worship, service and good works. However, mankind, as shown by Adam and Eve, the first humans, continually choose to do or follow evil. That's why we see so many messed up lives. You may know what I mean from close personal experience.
So then it is these wrong choices that we must guard against. We must stiffen our will to choose to obey God's laws, and do His will. When we line up with that Will, our lives take a turn for the better. They improve.
For example, if we allow bitterness to creep into our spirit through nursing the wrongs done to us, our body begins to wither and grow old faster, and so does our spirit, for what affects the one affects the other. The soul gets warped too. I saw what bitterness did to me when I allowed myself to wallow in hurts and disappointments. I became sick and depressed.
Thanks be to God, I saw this progression and insisted I wanted out of it. Turned out the answer was in my own will. I had to reverse my decision to be bitter and unforgiving.
Since then, I've watched several others wither and grow sick and crippled, both emotionally or spiritually, and in their bodies. Unfortunately, there is a certain kind of blindness that comes with this. It's hard to persuade you that you're bitter when you are; you only can see that you've been greatly wronged.
Now I have a passionate dislike for bitterness! I guard my heart against it. I'd like to guard yours too if I could, but I'm afraid all I can do is warn you, and plead with you to do it yourself.
Guard your heart against all evil thoughts, feelings, desires, and affections. Bring it under the loving authority of the Master who made it and can make it beautiful beyond compare. Why, it will be like a refreshing spring of water, bubbling good things all over you, and those who come near you.
Here's one more secret. Put on the breastplate of the righteousness of Christ Jesus, it will cover and duly protect your heart from all harm.
How ever in the world do you do that?
By choosing to believe that His righteousness cancels out all your unrighteousness. You have no defense to stand before a Holy Creator God-Judge except that of His Son. Take it with thanksgiving and be glad!
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Ruth Marlene Friesen makes friends wherever she goes!
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Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada