What is the condition of your heart?

What is the condition of your heart? If you had to draw a picture of your heart, what would it look like? When I met Jesus years ago, I underwent a radical transformation. I remember seeing my heart depicted as a house, it looked like one of those deserted, wooden houses standing in a field with a big tree next to it. As Jesus invaded my heart it turned into a beautiful glass house. He opened every window, old door, cupboard and spring cleaned so thoroughly that there was no darkness or weed to be found. I felt as if my heart was made out of glass and that there was nothing hidden and that I can stand in front of Him and He can see through me. I was hiding nothing and nothing was holding me back.

It is our responsibility to keep our hearts in that condition. We need to be careful what we allow into our hearts. I can immediately feel when anger, bitterness, resentment, hatred, unforgiveness, offence etc. try and worm its way into my heart. It’s like a rotten egg thrown at my window and I just know that there is something unpleasant going on. If you don’t realise it immediately then it might happen over a few days, you start feeling less peaceful and more irritable and the condition worsens the longer we take to deal with it.

The problem with the emotions mentioned above is that they take up space in our hearts, the space which love used to fill and this makes us feel drained, burdened and irritable. Your glass house now has weeds growing out the window and this is embarrassing, so you just withdraw because of shame and anger towards others. And if the weeds are not dealt with, our hearts close up, the glass turns to wood and we design walls to keep others out, mostly because we are angry at the world, vulnerable and ashamed of our pain. The worst thing is that we don’t just keep people out, but we also keep the love of God out and then our hearts can grow hard.

If you find yourself in this situation, whether there is a small weed growing or whether your house is completely closed with extra barbed wire around the wall and a big “keep out” sign out front, it does not matter to God. Nothing is impossible for Him and there is no heart that He cannot heal. God is more than capable to deal with any issues that you might have. All you need to do is allow Him to enter.

Often we already know what we have allowed into our hearts, especially if it’s something small, but sometimes it can be years of brokenness, hurt and rejection and these things will take time. Remember that He is gentle and kind and that He operates in love. He knows how fast He can clean and what you can and cannot handle. He works at your pace, slowly pulling out weeds and replacing them with love.

I’m not encouraging you to go on a journey of introspection and to find issues in yourself, but rather take the things that you do know of or the things that are bothering you and sit with the Holy Spirit and ask Him to show you how to deal with them and to fill your heart with love. God is taking us from glory to glory on this wonderful journey with Him. Do not be anxious because of where you are at in your journey, but know that if you hold His hand you will always reach your intended destination.

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” Ps 51:10

“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” 2 Cor 3:18

“Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!” Psalm 139:23-24

Photo credit: favim

Grow love not war

Picture credit: friendburst

“Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” And he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” Mark 4:1-9

It is our responsibility to keep our hearts open to God, always ensuring that there is good soil for His words to fall on and take root. The smallest things can hinder us from receiving His words and can make our hearts hard, whether we intend to do it or not. Unforgiveness, resentment, offence, anger, bitterness, anxiousness etc. are examples of seeds which Satan sows and if it takes root in our hearts, can choke the good seeds and steel the good soil. We are the ones who give power to these emotions or weeds as illustrated here and harbouring them is our choice.

I do understand that maybe great injustice has been done to you and forgiving someone for their harsh words or abusive actions might by very difficult, but God does not expect us to do this alone. We can ask Him to help us forgive, even though we struggle, all we need to be is willing to forgive. It is so dangerous to harbour unforgiveness as it breeds hurt, bitterness, contempt and often results in anger.  

When we are angry, the last thing we feel like is being vulnerable or lovable. We put our defences up, harden ourselves and we get ready to fight. Sometimes we just see red and there’s no space for reason. So now you can imagine, God is love. How does He fit into that picture? He doesn’t. When we reach that state, we inadvertently say that I’m here to take revenge and I want justice and someone needs to pay for the way I feel. At that moment we cut God out and our emotions take over and what follows thereafter can only lead to destruction of self and others. Afterwards when our emotions clam down, the last thing we feel is a sense of relief or joy, but rather increased hurt, emptiness and probably remorse.

“Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.” Eph 4:26-27

When we try and punish someone for the wrong they have done towards us, we end up punishing ourselves more, especially when it involves people close to us. As with all of the lies of the devil, revenge is just another attractive door with a graveyard behind it. Let’s ask God to help us today, to rather choose love and to learn to let go of past things that are dragging us down and keeping our hearts hard. Let’s remove every weed to allow for more space and good soil for God’s words to take root and grow in our hearts and His peace will reign in our hearts.

“He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Col 1:13-14

“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.” Col 3:12-15

The world is wide open - Jason Upton - SUCH a powerful song!