Heart

I am sure that everyone reading this has experienced a heart break or discouragement at some point in their life. The possibility that you are facing a challenge right now in the area of your heart is very large, considering we are very passionate individuals. God created us to be passionate. His word even says that he rather us be hot or cold than luke warm. Let us boil! I pray that this blog will shed some light onto something that you may be dealing with.

This is more of a personal blog than a word of exhortation, but I do pray that it helps you all. I was writing to my friend Tara this morning and the discussion of guarding our hearts came up. This is something that we kind of laugh about and say, “ok, how in the world are we supposed to guard our hearts?” Both of us have dealt with some big rejection issues in our lives. There are many days where we will email back and forth, just venting about something going on in our life and yet we always come to the resolution that God is in control. We know this, yet we always have to say it. Sometimes I feel like a broken record when I tell her, “Tara, God has it all in control. Let his timing and will be done.”
She also tells me things like, “Deb, God is able to do anything.”
Amen and Amen to all of these things, but sometimes, can we be real and say that it’s just not always easy?

I was driving my car around the other day and just thinking…I was amazed at how easily I seem to be able to give my heart away to people and things, even though it has been so misused, abandoned, hurt, confused, broken, neglected, trampled on, destroyed and tainted in the past. I was shocked at how easily I can just hand it off to the next person that comes into my life or the next thing that I become passionate about, without really asking God what he thinks first. I am working on this. I do go to God before anyone or anything for the most part, but let it be a priority to go to him, the creator of my heart, before giving it to anyone else.
Tara and others tell me, “Hello, we are human! We are going to fall for guys, we are going to get our hearts broken, we are going to do too much sometimes, but it’s ok cause God will work it out”, I tend to forget sometimes that it is ok to take chances. I am so quick to give my heart away, but when it returns to me broken and marred, I get so angry that I gave it away in the first place. Then I think to myself, “I will never give it away again.” I try to build walls and God says “Don’t do that!” and with ONE word of love from him, he knocks down the first layer of the wall that I was trying to build. Praise God for that! I praise him for the ability to love and let go. For the ability to be healed and cleansed by his blood.

While writing Tara today, I had a revelation. Say you have a precious item (let’s say a gold necklace that was passed down from generations and the significance of the necklace was great), one day someone that you really care about see’s the necklace and likes it and you want to let them borrow it. You give it to them with all that you have…you TRUST them to take good care of it. After all, you have spent many nights wearing this necklace and it holds dear value to you. You find out that the person who borrowed it has now misplaced it (NEGLECT). They have no idea where it is and they have no desire to find it for you. You are saddened because it means a lot to you and how could they want it so bad, but now have no motivation to find it again?
They eventually find it, but it is now all twisted (CONFUSED) and it doesn’t look as nice as it used to. You are upset with them and they apologize but don’t seem too hurt by it. They offer it back and you thank them, all the while holding your tongue cause you are so hurt by what they did. You know you must forgive them though. So you do..and eventually someone else comes along that wants to borrow it…by now you have already taken it to the jeweler and it is looking brand new again…you have already forgotten how sad you were the last time, cause the jeweler has done such a good job on it, so you give it to this person to “borrow.” This time, the person not only gets it all dirty (SIN), but has also broken pieces of it and some links are missing. You take it back and this time it costs more money to get it fixed…it takes a lot longer too. You keep doing this process because, well you are a giving person and it is how you are supposed to be. BUT, what about waiting for the person that you marry? What about waiting for the person that lives with you and you will be able to keep watch over it and share it together. What about asking God before you give it away so easily?

I’m not talking about a necklace, I am talking about your heart. Your heart is a sensitive, delicate part of who God made you to be. It is Jesus’ home. You can not live without it. Be careful who you let in and who you give it to…

Does anyone have any advice on guarding your heart or any input they would like to add? I am always open to comments, suggestions, questions.

God bless you!