Keep your heart with all diligence,

..... for out of it spring the issues of life (Proverbs 4:23).   I have known for a very long time why it is necessary to keep  (guard) my heart with all diligence, because if we don't the issues of life can overwhelm us.  Most of us are much more controlled by our emotions than we might care to admit! But I had asked the Lord this morning for a Scripture and this is what He gave me.  Have you ever  had the experience feeling misunderstood,  diagnosed as the problem,  and in various ways dismissed, all without being heard?  I have found the strength of my emotional reaction depends on a number of factors including the measure of the injustice,  and the importance of relationship involved.  “Without being heard” is problematic, because it is in hearing and being heard that “iron sharpening iron takes place” (Proverbs 27:17).

I need to confess that I have been wandering in and out of victory concerting these things.  And the Lord in His love brought  this morning's verse to my attention.  I don't know about you, but for me guarding my heart with all diligence is more easily said than done! It's not that I don't know the process, and it is a process. For me it starts,  when my heart is overwhelmed, with pouring out my complaint to the Lord (Psalm 142:3, 2).  Not saying it's easy, nor that there are not times to do it otherwise, but it's always best to start by pouring it out to Him,  rather than to others.  Bitterness and resentment too easily spread like a highly infectious disease (Hebrews 12:15).

After I have poured out my complaint, I need to shut up and listen. For me this often involves going on a favourite walk with my notebook in hand,  and writing down what I hear.  Many of my blogs are birthed this way. I was also pointed to 1 Peter 1:5 which speaks of we  “who are who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”  In the end it is God who keeps my heart, nevertheless it is “through faith,” meaning that He uses my faith response.  

So how does that work?  Well it's not by obsessing on the injustice! In my faith response I need to choose again and again to believe His  many promises. You'll need to find your own! One of my favourites is that God works all things together for my good (even the injustices). And when I respond in faith He's making me more like Jesus (Romans 8:28, 29).  To avoid bitterness,  I need to take my stinking thinking captive unto obedience to Christ  (2 Corinthians 10:5).  Concerning diligence, I may need to keep doing this over and over until with His help I come into full victory. I'm designed, with the help of His grace to be an overcomer (2 Corinthians 12:9). Concerning “in the last time” I need to take the view of eternity. If it's not going to matter 50 years from now,  I will, with His help,  choose not to let it matter today!

Father, Your Grace is sufficient, it is! Thank You for Your promise of life in all its fullness when, by Your grace,  we follow through and become more than conquerors. Strangely Lord, these trials are the very things You use to lift us higher. And for this,  and many  other things,  I give You thanks and praise in Jesus Name Amen