The Heart Matters

Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

-Proverbs 4:23

  

Ever find yourself wrestling with a decision where your mind is struggling to guide your heart, but your heart won't listen - deeming prudence as the enemy to desire?  Think about it. How many times have we knowingly understood something to not be good for us, but struggled to turn away from it, let it go, or just simply STOP ourselves?

Let’s be real!  It happens to all of us and usually centers around relationships or things that we've allowed to entangle us,  later causing us grief.  Entanglements can be imperceptible or blatantly obvious.  Either way, they generally commence after we've allowed our senses – what we hear, see, taste, touch, and smell – to become joined with our heart – the seat of emotions, feelings, and reasoning. 

Together, the conception produces an emotional entanglement or stronghold that is sustained through yearnings, cravings, longings, and the like.  For this reason, we grapple with saying "No" to things we knowingly don't need and shouldn't have, such as that second brownie; the shoes we must have, but really don’t need; or that person we know we shouldn't get involve with.

Regardless of how an entanglement is established, rarely is it combed out easily.  Disentanglements generally require time coupled with dedication, effort, diligence and prayer when changing a bad habit or unweaving your heart from another.  To this resolve, comes a principle "Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life."-Proverbs 4:23.  Guarding your heart involves setting a constant watch over what you allow to penetrate and reside in your heart.  It requires constant surveillance – keeping what is good and beneficial while discarding what is bad and detrimental.

If you're finding yourself struggling to make the right decision when presented with temptation, examine what's in your heart and start the process of discarding.  Take notice of what you spend time thinking about and ask yourself why.  Employ the principle of guarding your heart – your mind, will, and emotions – paying close attention to things you tend to easily gravitate toward.  And remember, we are the watchmen of our own heart and should guard against the many influences in our environment that compete for our time and attention.  Our course in life truly depends on it!

ENDURANCE

“A capable, intelligent and virtuous woman, who is he who can find her . . . Strength and dignity are her clothing and her position is strong and secure.  She rejoices over the future – the latter day or time to come knowing that she and her family are in readiness for it!”

Proverbs 31:10 & 25 AMP

Whew, Life!  What Joy, Pain, Sunshine, and Rain – Experienced it lately?  If not, as my grandmother use to say, “Just Keep Livin’.” 

As I reminisce over my personal experiences and accomplishments, I am reminded of the numerous challenges I have encountered.  Whether it was college, my career, dating, marriage, parenting, or ministry; each event came with its own set of challenges, more or less.  Even so, through each circumstance I acquired something wonderful – Endurance.  Endurance is the glue that gives you that stick-to-it-ness.  Each time you persevere through a challenging situation, you gain the stamina that facilitates your success through the next ordeal.

Take for example running a marathon.  Running a marathon is not an easy venture as it requires a great deal of discipline and physical aptitude as marathons can be rigorous.  Conditioning your mind and body unwearyingly over a period of time will build your endurance and help you avoid potential problems that can occur while running a marathon.

Muscle cramps, exhaustion, and lack of mental focus are all impediments to being able to finish a marathon.  However, one of the major impediments is not the lack of ability, but getting injured by training too quickly.  A slow and steady pace wins the race – conditioning with this notion will increase your chance of success.  This is true in most instances when confronting many of life’s challenges.

There is a principle in scripture that I often read when I need encouragement:   James 1:2-4 (New Living Translations), “Dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. 3 For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything.”   

Put differently, Character – courage, determination, patience, vigor, resilience, integrity, to name a few – is produced after it has been put to the test.   Perhaps you are going through a troubled marriage; or your children are going awry.  Maybe you’ve been laid off from work and you’re challenged with how to make ends meet.   These are real life experiences that test the very core of our being.

Let me encourage you – STAND.   This is your opportunity to allow the Lord to press out of you potential, new ideas, new perspective, hope and courage.  For at the greatest moment of pressure, we truly discover who we are and what we’re made of.  Troubles and difficulties help to refine and purify our faith, which in turn produces patience and endurance. 

Life is filled with hill and valley experiences.  It’s what we do in those moments that define us.  So dig your heels in and don’t call it quits! Begin to examine your situation.  Determine where change or improvement is needed.  Seek counsel and begin again.  Make a commitment to do what it takes to redefine and realign yourself for success.  Last, stay motivated by finding  inspiration that comes from scripture, journaling, and reflecting on the simple things in life that we take for granted.

 And remember, Jeremiah 29:11 says that “the Lord knows the thoughts that He thinks toward you; Thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”  When we begin to understand that everything is working for our good, we’ll find peace in knowing that the Lord is pressing out our potential and pushing us to greatness with a character that will keep us there.  Selah!