Near to the Heart of God

Luke 6:45 A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.

The two warring natures within us are always present. Each day, every day, we will turn to one source or the other​ for our daily bread, our daily strength. When we were in the world and of the world, we sought the world's approval and discounted Christians as weak.​​​​​

When we learned that we had a fatal illness called sin, for which the world had no cure, we found that  the foolishness of Christ could be our strength unto life eternal.  

​Christ's free gift planted the seed of eternal life within us, and the water and the comfort of the Holy  Spirit nourished the growth of the new life. But we still carried the old thought patterns and life habits  from years past.  

The life of the Spirit that we are now able to walk in follows an upward path. It is harder to follow than  our walk in the world, but it is not fraught with peril as our old life was. We were in the valley of the  shadow of death, but now our feet are on the higher path that leads us to the light that gives us life. 

We learn that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit and that we must renew our minds by  cleaning out what has accumulated in our thoughts and influenced our goals and distorted our purposes, and then begin filling the storerooms with the riches and sustenance of the Word of God.  

We also learn that we must set guards over the gates of our eyes and ears so that the rubbish-carriers  who have been accustomed to dumping their trash in the temple grounds and rooms will no longer be  allowed to enter. 

The struggle continues on a daily basis. It can become easier as we draw closer to
God and discover  how to spend more of our time in conversation with our Father and learn more of the Word of God to  occupy our thoughts and imaginations. 

Until we enter eternity, we will always have a daily choice of which power we accept as our source and who we will be indebted to as our master. We will be loyal to one and despise the other, or we will  honor the one and ignore the other. The one who receives our support is the one who will be able to fill  our heart and flow out from us to form our witness and testimony through our lives and our words. 

Our conversation, whether spoken or written, our lifestyle, whether watched or heard, has power. It can show the power to encourage or to dishearten, to heal or to wound, to lift up or to knock down. Our  witness, our testimony, our words, both spoken and lived, can contain the very power of life or death. 

Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is perverse above all things, and unsearchable, who can know it? 

Proverbs 4:23 Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. 

Let's draw near to God, holding to His promise to draw near to us. Let's experience all that God has for  us, letting go of the things of the world we have been holding onto tightly and stretch out our arms,  empty of all but our desire to embrace more of our Father and be gathered up tighter in His loving  clasp.  

​Let's snuggle close enough to our all-caring Abba that we can hear His heart beat. Then from that secret place in the Spirit where we are welcomed and allowed to dwell in His presence, let's speak the words  of life and hope and healing and encouragement that flow from His heart to the ones He brings across  our path.

Loving Father, majestic God, gracious Savior, thank You for the keeping power You pour into our lives. You are aware of and care about each stumble we have, each bruise that hurts. When our strength fades, You gently blow the breath of life on the dimming ember until the life of Your Spirit can flare back into the fire which cleanses us and energizes us to join You in the work of the harvest. Thank You for holding us when we need it, and for walking beside us when we are able. Thank You for this day You have created, and thank You for the strength You have given us for this day. We give You the honor, and the praise, and the glory, and the worship, for You are fully worthy and completely deserving of it!​​

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