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Issues of the Heart

The wise man said:

            Keep and guard your heart above all else for out of it flow the issues of life.

“Issues” actually refers to the boundary between two pieces of property – literally the “limit” of the property.

The thoughts of our heart (not mind) determine the limits of our lives.  Ninety percent of the people who fail are not actually defeated – they simply quit.  They accept limits.

It is true that whatever the mind can conceive, believe, it will find a way to achieve.

When you believe that what you want to achieve is possible, your brain will actually respond by helping you to accomplish that possibility.

Adidas once ran the following ad in a magazine:

Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they have been given than to explore the power they have to change it.  Impossible is not a declaration – it’s a dare.  Impossible is potential.  Impossible is temporary.  Impossible is nothing.

Love The Lord!

Matthew 22:37

And He replied to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (intellect).

Jesus gives us the greatest of all His commands – an ideal for life.

An ideal is a model we hold in our minds, a standard we reach for.  Ideals determine our priorities.

Ideals are powerful because what we love, desire and focus our beings on is what we become.

The greatest revelation in the history of the world is that God is love and God loves us.

The sweetest of all human emotions is love.
The greatest of all possible human experiences is love.

God has unimagined blessings for those who fully love Him.

1 Corinthians 2:9
…Eye has not seen and ear has not heard and neither has it entered into the heart of man, [all that] God has prepared (made and keeps ready) for those who love Him.

Our love for Him must be proven by the involvement of our entire being.  It is the highest kind of love for it motivates you to do what is right and noble regardless of what you may be feeling.

This love Jesus commands is the noblest, purest and highest form of self-sacrificing love.

We are never totally right with God until our heart, soul, mind, and strength manifest our love for God.

Love for God must be more than a confession.  Our entire being must manifest that love.  Love like this is manifested through obedience to His commands.

Love is always the first step.  God keeps covenant with those who love Him and keep His commandments.

When we are troubled, when we don’t have an answer, when we don’t know what to do, when our resources are not sufficient to meet our need, when we are frustrated, confused – just start with God and love Him with your entire being.

When we start with our circumstances, our challenges, our lack, and our doubt we are so limited.

Our problems are solved by responding to His love.  Start with God and then go to your need, your lack, your challenge, and your circumstance.

The whole purpose of life is to lead us to the final and ultimate truth that God is the one who loves us and can fully satisfy us.

When we start with God and loving Him with our entire being – presenting our bodies (all of us) as a living sacrifice – then we love our families, we love our neighbors, we even love our enemies, and we lead them to Christ.

We must renounce every competing affection, and be willing to lay down our lives for the advancement of His kingdom.

Identifying Your Identity!

Proverbs 4:23

Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life.

The greatest wealth is knowing who you really are.

Whoever you can be, you must be.  Every person came with an Identity from God to be discovered in the process of living life.

Nothing is more critical to successful living than knowing who we are.

That which is within the heart of a person is by far the largest and most important part of their existence.

Proverbs 19:21: Many plans are in a man’s mind, but it is the Lord’s purpose for him that will prevail.

Proverbs 20:5:  The purposes of a man’s heart are deep waters, but a man of understanding draws them out.

Our “Identity” must come out of our deep inner self, from the reservoir of God’s truth, wisdom and knowledge.

Our “Identity” should never come from our circumstance, adversity, culture, status, position, past, sins or failures.

Our “Identity” is to be built over the course of our lifetime as we respond to the issues of our life.

Proverbs 4:21, 23:  Keep my words in the center of your heart.  Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the issues of life.

“Issues” means “to go forth, limits, boundaries.”

Your Identity will determine the boundaries, the limits, of your life.

What is your life full of?  When life squeezes you, what comes out?

Do you know the person God designed you to be?  Or, have you become the person the world around you has determined you to be?

Sowing Power!

If you sow a thought, you will reap a feeling.  Sow a feeling and you will reap an act.  Sow an act and you will reap a habit.  Sow a habit and you will reap character.  Sow character and you will reap destiny.

From the beginning God taught us the importance of sowing and reaping.  He Himself sowed the Word of Creation and our universe was born.

He sowed His son Jesus into the earth and is still reaping a harvest of souls which no one can number.

Today Jesus continually sows the seed of the Word of His Kingdom into our hearts so that we can understand and live by His laws.

His purpose in sowing His Word into our hearts is to recreate the Garden of Eden within us.

The concept of His abundance is found everywhere in His creation.

A spiritual Garden of Eden within will cause us to live life from His principles within rather than living life in the external senses.

In order to accomplish this, our faith and worship life cannot be just another compartment of our highly compartmentalized life.

There is absolute abundance in the Kingdom of God.  It is possible to have total favor with the Ruler of that abundance.

God is never diminished by circumstances.  He can cause our plans to succeed. He can cause people to like us.  He can cause us to be preferred and chosen above others of equal talent.  He can protect us and guard us.  He gives His angels charge concerning us.

When His Word is spoken into our hearts, we can then speak that Word into a situation and it will perform His purpose.

Our Longing for Belonging

There are four things we know about people who become whole. 

1. Heal their hurts:

The purpose behind healing your hurts is to protect you from repeating the pain of your past in your present relationships.

Every relationship, in a sense, gives you another chance to resolve issues you didn’t get squared away in a previous one.

2. Remove their mask:

In learning to be whole, we must also take off our mask.

We vacillate between the impulse to reveal ourselves and the impulse to protect ourselves.  We long both to be known, and to remain hidden.  The primary reason we wear our mask is to guard against rejection.

If we wear our mask long enough, we may guard against rejection and we may even be admired, but we’ll never be whole.  We’ll never enjoy true intimacy.  If you are ever to achieve personal wholeness, it will be because you have the courage to drop your guard, take off your mask, and be real.

3. Sit in the driver’s seat:

It’s so easy to be passive – to move through life simply reacting to outside forces.  We watch the scenery flash by as life happens around us.  We show up, sit back and let fate determine our destination.

When it comes to achieving wholeness, to building a solid sense of identity and self-worth, we want something to happen to us.  But self-worth comes from hard work; it is earned.  You will never achieve it as a mere passenger; you must sit in the driver’s seat.

Everyone should have a personal statement of purpose and a small set of meaningful goals.  Your purpose will set your course, and your goals will serve as your road map to becoming the person God created you to be.

4. Rely on God:
You will never maximize your potential for healthy relationships until
you’ve learned to rely on God to meet your ultimate needs.

All of us look to relationships for a deeper level of personal fulfillment. 
We dream of relationships that will complete our need for significance. 

But only God can ultimately and consistently love us when we are moody, when we make mistakes, and when we feel rejected and unloved by the person we counted on the most.

The Psalmist said in 73:26 – My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart. 

I John 4:12 says – God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.

The beautiful thing about relying on God is that He instills hope within our hearts.

The Gratitude Attitude

Gratitude is the world’s best attitude.  Gratitude is the world’s best medicine.  Gratitude causes us to focus on what we have – not on what we lack.  Gratitude is the expression of the heart’s memory.

We are never more fully alive than when we are grateful for our blessings.

In the midst of these challenging times we are faced with a critical spiritual choice –   Will we live by fear or by faith?  Will we choose His truth or the world’s lies?

Who do we believe is in charge – God or man?

Often we are tempted to be discouraged, despondent, to focus on what is not right in our lives, to complain of our circumstances, our lack.

Often our mouths are filled with criticism, bitterness, resentment, disrespect, sarcasm, and flippant, trivial speech.

But God has given us a remedy – ThanksLiving.

Philippians 4:6-7 - ⁶Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition (definite requests), with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God.

⁷And God’s peace [shall be yours…] which transcends all understanding shall garrison and mount guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Focus on what you have, not on what you don’t have.

Focus on what you can do, not on what you can’t do.

Focus on what is right in your life, not on what is wrong.

Focus on who you are, not on who you are not.

Focus on what you can make happen for others, not on what you want them to make happen for you.

We must do four things to achieve a ThanksLiving lifestyle.

          1) Walk in Him.
          2) Become rooted in Him.
          3) Be built up in Him.
          4) Be established in the faith.

This daily walk is done in gratitude for all Jesus has given to us.

While circumstance may change, Jesus never does.  Walk in the beauty, the fruit, the treasures, the liberty of Christ. Be Thank-FULL for Him today.