Given the right plan, everything can be managed . . . except your heart.” ~John Eldredge

(The Sacred Romance)

What’s your heart telling you today?

Have you asked it how it’s doing?

Sometimes we need to follow our hearts, but other times we shouldn’t.

I discovered this a few years ago. This post is an old one, but it’s a good one. I needed to read it again–maybe you need it too.

Does anybody else need to relearn the same lesson over and over again?

If you do, we’re in good company. I pray this blesses you.

 

Somewhere inside this grown woman’s body stomps a little seven year old girl with her hands on her hips throwing a temper-tantrum. It’s the same little girl turned sixteen whose moods lured her into pity parties.

I don’t know where she came from! I just woke up with her this morning.

Yesterday I was a thriving, content, purposeful woman. What happened? I can think of a number of reasons why my dark-side rose up: lack of sleep, change of seasons, not spending enough time in my Bible.

My heart moped around all morning entertaining old arguments about purpose and value. I didn’t even want to sit down and write this post. But as I sat down I prayed for God to lead me to a scripture; He did. Like a patient husband who knows his wife needs to get her frustrations out, he let me vent then led me to this verse.

I opened my Bible to Jeremiah 17:7,8–verses I’d read the week before. My eyes danced past verses seven and eight to verse nine. “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)

As I read verse nine God whispered, [tweetability]”Why are you trusting your heart today? Stay on course. Trust Me.”[/tweetability]

Spirit leads spirit and my eyes moved back to verses seven and eight.

But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when the heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.

I’ve never considered that I often trust my own heart, my emotions, more than I trust God. But that’s exactly what I was doing. Do you do this?

[tweetability]Do your moods make or break your day?[/tweetability]

 

[tweetability]Do you feel like you’re not making an impact on this world?[/tweetability]

 

[tweetability]Do you find yourself trusting in your heart more than God and His promises?[/tweetability]

 

If you are, there is a very good chance you are being deceived.

If your heart is deceiving you today:

1. Sit down with God. Open up your Bible, and ask Him to give you a verse for the day. (It might take a few verses before you find the one that jumps into your spirit.)

2. Pray to trust Jesus more than your feelings.

3. List three things you are thankful for.

May I pray for us? I need it!

“Oh Lord, thank you! Thank you for the Bible. Your Word of truth brings clarity, insight, freedom. I was in bondage today, chained by my own deceiving heart. Help me and your beloved reading these words to trust you more than our emotions. Make us like the trees in Jeremiah 17. We love you. Thank you Jesus. May our purpose and value be in You. Amen.”

With purpose beyond today which makes life really fun,