Tag: God Knows the heart

Posted in Life Inspiration

How Well Do You Know God?

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How many times today have you said that you loved someone or something? Things like “I love French fries or cake, or the shoes on my feet. Perhaps you told someone you loved them, and genuinely meant it, or maybe not.” The point is we use the word “love” a lot. And often as nothing more than a term of affection meaning “really like.” We wouldn’t dare compare the love of chocolate cake to the love of our family. So if we rated love on a scale of 1-10, where would chocolate cake rate, and where would our mother rank. And if by comparison we threw the love of God into the equation, in that He gave His only begotten Son to die for sins, where then would chocolate cake rate? I know it really is relative, but it’s a point worth pondering.

How much do we understand the love of God?

What does God know about you?

God knew you, before you were you

Jeremiah 1:5 –  Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest  forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

Of course God speaks of Jeremiah the Prophet, but being that God is no respecter of persons, He put the same thought into you prior to your birth. Your life was a blue print in God’s mind before you became the child of your parents. While your parents were planning the color of your nursery, God was planning your career. I know the love that I had for my girls and the planning and preparing that went into each of their arrivals. But I didn’t love them to the depth that God loved them. While human love created the children, God’s love created the possibility for it to happen, in that He allowed me to conceive. He created the Passion for David and I to love each other and He created the potential for my girls to become who He wanted them to become.

When the world tells us that we are unworthy, and for me that is often. God says, “You have no idea of the time I’ve invested in you.” That should make us pause for reflection on why we feel unworthy. It’s not because the Creator makes us feel that way.

That is why, I believe that God starts speaking into our lives at a very young age, and so does Satan. Satan loves to try to undo, God’s creation. He’s very good at it in some areas. But in our lives, he is only as good as we let him be.

God Knows the Hairs on your Head

Matthew 10:30 – But the very hairs of your hair are all numbered?

What attention to detail! Most of us don’t even notice when someone we care about gets their hair cut, but God not only notices, He has each follicle numbered. It shows the depth of God’s love and concern for everything aspect of our lives.

Following the surgery, my hair was showing a lot of damage. Possibly from the stress on my body overall. It was frustrating to look in the mirror at the broken and dead ends of my previously healthy-ish hair ( I do color it after all). But I have friends who have lost their hair because of cancer treatments. How can I complain about split ends. Because God knows for me it’s not about vanity as much as it’s about wanting to appear healthy so that people aren’t concerned and worried about me. To the world, it may seem vain. But God knows and cares about my heart. Maybe for you it’s another part of your anatomy or life that causes anxiety. Believe that God cares.

God Knows your Desires

Psalm 37:4 – Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

I can’t tell you how many times that I’ve read and favored this verse. But today as I read it, the word “also” jumped from the page of scripture.

If you read the verses going into that verse you’ll see in the context that there is method to God’s plans. Psalm 37:1-3 says Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.

Leading up to the often-quoted verse of God granting us the desires of our heart is the acknowledgement that we are often aware of others who seemingly have the world as their oyster while we have crawl crabs on the creek bank. Can I get a witness on that!? Today as I traveled the highways I was having one of those moments as I looked at the countless blessing of folks who were far from serving God and yet they had “so much” materialistically speaking. I was ashamed of myself as soon as the thought came into my mind; but it didn’t stop me from thinking about it again.

But God does know the desires of my heart, and how many of those has He given me? Countless! And what does the lost have if they have not Christ? Nothing of any value. So when I read “also.” What that said to my heart was God allows our hearts to desire things of Him and things that are not of Him. And so long as they are not harmful to the cause of Christ, they are fine. But it’s up to God when to dole out the blessings. Just as it’s up to Him to call the final day in the life of a lost soul.

Verse 5a: Commit thy way unto the Lord;

Stay committed regardless.

God knows every thought we have before we have it. He knows our down rising and our uprising. David said I Psalm 139:8 – If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed hell, behold thou art there. There is no where that we can go, no thought nor action can we have that God is not aware. No sin…

That is what’s so amazing about John 3:16

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

He knows every sin and failure, yet He was still willing to allow His Son to pay the price for our sin.

Who would you do that for?

How well do you know the Love of God and the depth of it? He knows everything about us. Every second of the day He is prepared to hear us and provide for us. How many seconds of the day are we prepared to hear His voice and get to know Him better? How many minutes on Sunday do we commit to know Him better?

 

Posted in Bible Journaling, Christian Service, Life Inspiration

Did God Break my Physical Heart to Repair the Spiritual One?

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I’ve pondered the heart a lot lately; both physically and spiritually. Because of my physical limitations I have been forced to sit still, which is not fun for me. I’m worse than any child when it comes to being told “no.”  Yesterday may have been the worst day yet. I made the bed, cleaned the kitchen, ran the sweeper (it’s not heavy don’t stress) and I cleaned the toilet. I learned a new song, and played it somewhat less than a hundred times. I sat on the porch swing, sat on the playground swing, fed the chickens… you know. Busy work. But in between those times I sat and pondered my heart. The broken one and the repaired one and wondered if God had broken the physical one so that He could remake the spiritual one?

You, nor does anyone else, truly know my heart. It has some great character traits. And it has some really lousy ones that I wouldn’t share with anyone in the world. But God knows.

2 Chronicles 6:30

Then hear thou from heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and render unto every man according unto all his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou only knowest the hearts of the children of men:)

There’s a bluegrass song that I love to sing called “Who do you think you’re foolin’,” by Wayne Taylor. It’s a funny song about a car dealer, a church lady and a preacher. But there’s nothing funny about a wicked heart in the eyes of God. So when I truthfully examine my heart I understand God’s makeover. I needed a time out to ponder my life and priorities.

This is somewhat of a random blog I guess, but my mind is everywhere this morning. There’s a lady I’ve been witnessing to in the Long Term Care Unit who has COPD. My Dad died of Emphysema, so I know the look and the fear of not being able to catch your breath. I’ve even experienced it a time or two during this heart procedure. Before my heart attack I would visit her and say, “Nobody is promised tomorrow, I might walk out of this building and die today,” and then I’d plead with her to get saved. Her response was always “not today.” She’s on my list of visits when I’m released to carry guitars and such. I can honestly tell her, I almost did die. But more than that I can tell her about the sweetest peace I’ve ever felt in my life in the face of death. I want her to see the good side of my heart, the side that God gave me through His Spirit that dwells within. If not for this event in my life, I’d not have known that experience.

If not for this event I’d not have examined my heart and seen that there was a wickedness within me that was ugly and rooted in bitterness. My heart has no room for that if I allow the Spirit to take over those dark halls. I realized that I don’t love people enough and there were some people that I wouldn’t allow myself to love at all. People who hurt me, or hurt someone I love. But that is not the heart of God else He couldn’t stand me! How many times have I hurt Him? Can you ask yourself that question honestly and then look at someone else and not forgive? Not if God does a work in your heart.

I still bear the scar down the front of my body from the surgery. It’s a reminder that God repaired what the world broke and I need to take care of it. I also need to take care of the body. The body of Christ. I’m praying that this mended heart is stronger and braver than the one before. I pray that today your heart is tender to the word of God that encourages healing and that you’ll allow God to make you strong and brave too. Preferably without a heart attack and open heart. 🙂

Posted in Bible Journaling, Christian Service, Leadership, Life Inspiration

Don’t Wear Someone Else’s Armor

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armor

He was the runt of the litter, his brother said he was an arrogant, bad hearted, rubber necker and the enemy said he was as threatening as a stick. That’s the “Shari version” of I Samuel 17 as David is about to face off with Goliath. How on earth did he get there? Nobody had any faith in him, his Dad gave him the worst job on the farm and used him as an errand boy to find out what the real soldier boys were doing. I love any story of David, but the history of his battle with Goliath is no doubt in my top three favorite reads. By all accounts of his peers, he shouldn’t have been there. The sum of who David was is written in the words of Abner in verse 55:

And when Saul saw David go forth against the Philistine, he said unto Abner, the captain of the host, Abner, whose son is this youth? And Abner said, As thy soul liveth, O king, I cannot tell.

O king, I cannot tell… Abner had no clue who David was. But God did. The day that Samuel anointed David to be King in Saul’s stead, obviously his brothers took no note of it. Does that not strike you odd? It did me. If someone had come to my house and said one of my siblings was going to be President one day, I think I’d take note of that day. Abner wasn’t there when Samuel anointed David, so he’s excused of his ignorance, but not his brothers, they should have known there was something special about David. David was the forgotten anointed, the waylaid leader, the king in coming and nobody too note… except God!

Scripture is clear that God does not look on the outside but on the heart of man. That scripture too was from the anointing of David. Samuel looked at David’s rugged big brothers and thought surely they were king material. But king material is more looks, its being in touch with those you serve. David shows up on the battle field and hears Goliath mouthing his country and his blood boils!

That’s how I feel about America. That’s how I feel about my church. That’s how I feel about my family and friends. I take it very personal when someone is attacking my people. It’s even worse, when it is my people who are on the attack.

Goliath wasn’t one of David’s people. He was flat out the enemy. His disdain for Israel was to be expected. But David’s brothers… They may not have been mouthing Israel but they weren’t defending her either and they were mouthing their brother who was defending Israel. Unbeknownst to the brethren their little annoying brother had a King sized heart that got him noticed by the King of kings.

God’s not looking for a king but He’s still in the business of noticing hearts.

I have days, multiple lately, when I think my work is in vain. I feel like I have shown up on the battle field of life and one of my people called me an arrogant, bad hearted, rubber necker because I was on their playing field. (For the record, nobody has) that’s just how I feel. I talk a lot… and I’ve been known to say “Is there not a cause,” and be frustrated when nobody was taking off Goliath’s head.

And this morning I heard through God’s word… “I see you. Yes, you annoy the brethren. But I know your heart and I know that you want to help. But you need to spend more time defending the fold before you face the giant.”

I don’t know exactly what that means. But I know in my heart that there was a day when God anointed me to do what I do, and some took note, and some didn’t. I have a King sized heart because the King gave it to me. I can’t shut it off like a water faucet, it flows freely. Unfortunately so does my mouth.  All I know right now is, I have some rocks in my pocket but I need to be careful about where I’m throwing them.

My lesson today was this:

  • God knows my heart and sees my frustration, the people need to see the victory, not the complaint.
  • When I throw stones, I need to make sure it’s at the enemy and aim well.
  • Don’t wear someone else’s armor. God created me just the way I am. Vocal.