Guard Your Heart

Jeremiah 17:9 says “The heart is deceitful above all things and wicked.”  Proverbs 4:23 tell us to guard our heart.  “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”  However the world tells us to FOLLOW our hearts and do whatever we want, whenever we want.   As a human being, that is a lot to process because we are all looking for peace and happiness in a world that is so much less than HAPPY right at the moment. 

I’ve said if before and I’ll say it again, love is not a warm and fuzzy feeling.  It’s not a “giddy” or “butterflies in the stomach” kind of thing.  Love is a choice.  It’s a daily active verb that must be put into action and reignited every morning when our feet hit the floor, actually BEFORE we even step out of bed.  We’ve got to get our minds right first thing and pointed in the direction of showing others love in the onset of our day.

One of my favorite scriptures EVER and because I love it and believe in it so much I’ve got it on the back of one of my Running Doe t-shirts, is 1 John 3:18 and it says, “My children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.”  I love this Word because although I fall short every day, all day long at times, I know that when we truly show love to another it’s not with our mouths but with our actions toward them.  Although the world tells us to follow our hearts, God tells us to grab hold of the reins and LEAD them because without direction our hearts will always pursue whatever feels right at the moment.  You might not always feel like “loving” but that’s just it.   Love isn’t a feeling.  It’s an action that God has commanded us to do, whether we FEEL like it or not.   I agree that it’s hard to show love to someone that you don’t have loving feelings toward.  You might even have hard, bitter feelings for a person.  I’m there with you because I’ve got those same relationships in my life.  But I have to make a choice to either let the bitterness eat me alive and live harboring resentment and anger toward someone, who either isn’t bothered by those feelings or could care less, or choose for myself to show kindness and love in a situation where it’s badly needed.  It’s my choice just like it’s yours but who really wins when we bottle up anger and hate?  We do. 

I encourage you today to take a step back and look at your relationships and ask yourself “Who do I want to be and where do I want my life to go?”  Do you want to stay stuck in a negative place or do you want to take a step of faith and give it to God and just show love.  Sometimes we have to step out on that limb because if we want the fruit, that’s where it’s hanging from.

If we choose God, we choose love …let us always choose love.

Show some love today!!!

Kelly