My Heart

1Peter 5:8-11 (MSG) 4/4/20

Keep a cool head. Stay alert. The Devil is poised to pounce, and would like nothing better than to catch you napping. Keep your guard up. You’re not the only ones plunged into these hard times. It’s the same with Christians all over the world. So keep a firm grip on the faith. The suffering won’t last forever. It won’t be long before this generous God who has great plans for us in Christ- eternal and glorious plans they are!- will have you put together and on your feet for good. He gets the last word; yes, he does. (bold/underline mine)

When I sit and meditate on these verses I am encouraged. I am still at peace. I know God is in control! I do question if I am living these verses out, so I ponder… Am I staying alert? I would like to say yes, no doubt but if I am being honest I need to be more alert just of how crafty the devil is. I believe one of the devil’s number 1 missions is in destroying relationships and especially marriages. So recognizing that during these days of isolation and quarantine we must be intentional about our relationships. What am I doing to nurture the most important people in my life? Am I continually seeking the Lord and being intentional in that relationship, am I growing?

In Proverbs 4:23 the writer speaks of guarding our hearts, the NIV version reads “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life”. I do think in this season we must be guarding our hearts. It would be very easy to get down and depressed, to rot away emotionally and to think you are all alone. But the truth is we are NEVER alone. God, who sits on the throne, sent His son to be with us and through His Spirit we feel His presence in our lives! This is such great news and it’s undeniable! He is in us! Throughout these days my prayer is that more and more of His people would turn to Him for guidance, comfort and healing. Our hearts are so precious, we must guard them in order for Him to live in and through us.

It might be easy for one to question how to keep a firm grip on faith in these uneasy times. But I am encouraged, be encouraged that He gives us the tools. I am again reminded of Ephesians 5:14-18 (NIV). I say again because these verses are on my mind a lot these days. The Whole Armor of God: the waistband of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, feet firmly standing on the Gospel of peace and then above all the Shield of Faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit (the Word of God). Where is your shield, where is my shield? Do I hold tight to it and have it always with me, or do I leave it unattended, always wondering where it is? I pray with my whole heart that I never put it down! My faith is most important to me! My faith is why I am still here on this earth! My faith and the prayers of the faithful, are why my children are here on this earth! As I sit here and ponder faith, one thing I am challenged with is, how am I living out my faith, especially now in the middle of a pandemic? I pray that because of my strong faith, others in my life will yearn to grow and that this faithfulness can become contagious. Our faith being contagious overrides a contagious virus. A virus is something that will be overcome by Faith. A virus will go away- my faith will never go away!

Moving on in these verses we come to the part of how Our God is a generous God. He is a loving Father, He is full of gifts for us, we need only to seek Him faithfully. Generosity- something this world needs to learn. Examine our lives, what are we doing to give to others? I am not talking just about money, what are we doing to give of ourselves, our time, the people we choose to do life with? How are we sharing our gifts? In our current season we are all being encouraged to remain at home, distance ourselves, do our part in stopping the spread of this deadly virus. I believe that by doing our part, abiding to authority, is us being generous. We have a huge platform through social media- what can we do on there to show generosity? God’s word makes it clear that if we are generous to others, He will be generous to us!

Lastly, I love the end of these verse. God gets the last word! Yes, yes He does! He is going to put us all back together- Together, what a wonderful word. We should all desire to be together. I am reminded that we cannot do this life alone, we were never meant to be alone. God created Eve so Adam would not be alone. We all might be feeling the isolation is leading to feelings of loneliness but God promises to bring us back together. I long for the day when I can get together with my friends and family again, but right now I am most thankful for the together time I have with my husband and children. This has been precious to me, we got away from the cherished moments and albeit together, we were typically rushing around trying to figure out what we might have forgotten to do. I don’t want to go back to that way of living.

My prayer is that we find more of a balance, enjoy being together at a much slower pace, not take each other for granted. Because together we are so much more strong, capable, happy, faithful- we can build upon one another’s strengths, we can be much more generous together than on our own. This is my hope- that as a whole family unit our generosity flourishes.

This is my heart, I pray that it may be a blessing to others. Thank you Lord for your faithfulness!