It
is God who enables us, along with you, to stand firm for Christ. He has
commissioned us, and he has identified us as his own by placing the Holy Spirit
in our hearts as the first installment that guarantees everything he has
promised us. 2 Corinthians 1:21-22
The election
season has left me feeling a bit more negative lately, and I needed to take
ownership of that. So as I prayed the other night, I prayed on what was going
on within me. I realized a lot of my negativity dealt with the political
talk around me. Nothing talked about seemed positive. There were a
couple of metaphors in my prayers that helped me overcome this; one was from
home and another was from work.
The one from home
said, “Don’t tell me what you are against. Tell me what you are for.” We
can often get caught up in what we do not like (i.e. the negative). What
we should be focusing on is what we like or prefer (i.e. the positive).
It’s when we focus on the positive that our outlook begins to change. The
one from work is a simple one; start with heart. One might think,
“What does heart have to do with anything work related?” It actually is
from a book about handling conversations where something is not changing and
emotions can run high (ex. A tough conversation about inappropriate
behavior). ‘Start with heart’ means asking yourself, “What is it that I
want from the conversation?” This is relevant to our spiritual growth
because we often struggle between what we want and what God wants. Would
God be proud of how I approach this conversation? Is what I am doing for
the sake of my personal gain or God’s kingdom? Where does my heart truly lie?
Giving of ourselves to what God wants ensures that our heart
starts in the right place. We are taught
that we should focus on the head and not the heart, and that to a great extent
is true. However, this is one of the
rare occasions that we should be trusting our hearts. Why?
Because if we have given our lives to Christ and are truly following Him,
our hearts, filled with His Spirit, will drive our decisions the right
way. If our heart is not for God, we
will continually drive ourselves toward justification of the wrong things. Thus, we should continually feed ourselves
God’s word to ensure our head is in the right place, and we should also spend
time looking into our hearts to understand whether we our motivated by what God
wants, which is where all good outcomes begin, and what we want, which when not
aligned with God can lead to poor results.
We are always in a constant struggle to keep ourselves in a
righteous place. The world will find
ways to weaken and distract us for the devil is always on the prowl (Stay
alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a
roaring lion, looking for
someone to devour. 1 Peter
5:8). However if we are willing to stop
for a moment and focus on Jesus, our motives will immediately change from one
of worldly gain to one of Godly discernment.
Thus whenever you realize that you are in that dark place, remember the
words of Paul and go to God “with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our
guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean,
and our bodies have been washed with pure water.” (Hebrews 10:22b). What situation or conversation of yours needs
a heart check? What has God placed on
your heart, and how can you follow it with confidence? My prayer is that whatever your situation is
today, look to Christ Jesus, and simply start with heart. Amen.
