God is bringing us full-circle today. I don’t know if you remember when we started connecting on a regular basis just over a year ago? The first email I sent was based on Proverbs 4 and stressed the importance of guarding our hearts in these uncertain times. I feel like God has really worked with us over the past year to lift us up into his perspective and into a higher level of faith and understanding. It has been a tough year at times, but I am so thankful for his consistent encouragement and input. I don’t know about you, but I needed these reminders and redirections, often!
So today, I want to share those original verses with you again and add to them a word the Lord gave me this week. I feel like it is a continued encouragement but also a recognition of the work we’ve done this year to stay focused on him. I really sense his pleasure at how we have battled our thoughts, fear and anxiety; how we have held fast to his promises and determined to rise above the garbage of the world.
Listen again to Proverbs 4:23, 25-27: So above all, guard the affections of your heart, for they affect all that you are. Pay attention to the welfare of your innermost being, for from there flows the wellspring of life. Set your gaze on the path before you. With fixed purpose, looking straight ahead, ignore life’s distractions. Watch where you’re going! Stick to the path of truth, and the road will be safe and smooth before you. Don’t allow yourself to be sidetracked for even a moment or take the detour that leads to darkness.
As I was meditating on these verses, the Lord began to share his thoughts. I believe this was intended for all of us and I believe it will really encourage you today!
Thank you for listening to my heart; it truly is the most important thing to Me. Your heart is the core of who you are and who I am in you. The world intentionally and strategically works to numb your hearts and to squash any compassion, love, hope and the ability to even listen to your own heart! Do not think for a moment that the busyness, activity and inundation of information is without a purpose. The enemy and the principalities of this world strive daily to distract you from the reality that lives in your heart! For your heart is the open channel from me to you, from heaven to earth.
It’s the most critical skill, to be able to hear, to know, to feel My heart. That is why the quiet, the pause, the pursuit are so resisted. The phone, the ping, the posts—all serve to keep you distracted and living in your minds. But you must learn to hear, follow and nurture your heart. TRULY, out of it flows LIFE; there is no life without learning to hear your heart, to know your heart…and Mine.
Oh friends, our Heavenly Father is so pleased with you. He is so delighted that you have persevered when it’s been difficult, that you have held up under pressure, that you have continued to believe him no matter what happened around you. He just wanted us to know today that he sees our hearts and every struggle with fear, anxiety, shame and doubt. He judge where we are or where we’ve been. He lovingly and gently guides us back to himself and back to the truth of his word.
Aren’t you so glad? And so thankful?? I am! Thanks for tuning in all these months, friends. I’m excited to see and to share what’s next…!