The State Of Our Hearts.

As Valentine’s Day approaches, I want to be so intentional.

In our family this day has always been so simple. Some chocolates for our children, some flowers for me from my husband and a special home cooked meal.

Since I was raised by a single mama, the kids and I would often take flowers to someone else that may have been overlooked or forgotten.

Think of all the widows/widowers at a nursing home missing the one their hearts celebrated for years. What about the single person in your Bible study, or the mama parenting alone?

I also didn’t want my children to be caught up in the feeling  that they needed a boyfriend/girlfriend to enjoy this day. So we turned our focus to the love of God, that is constant and for us all.

Now that my husband is in heaven and my children are spread across the country, the usual traditions don’t seem to fit. It’s caused me to reflect a bit.

What is the state of my heart? Do chocolates and flowers make me happy? Must I be remembered by someone to feel special?

What happens to the state of my heart when I “lift up my eyes” to the King of Hearts?

I was reading in Psalm 44 the other day, where David is remembering.

He remembers all the ways that God went before His people.

“Through you we push back our enemies;
through your name we trample our foes.
I put no trust in my bow,
my sword does not bring me victory;

but you give us victory over our enemies,
you put our adversaries to shame.”

Then He remembers something else,

“When their enemies plundered them and they had to retreat.”

What do you think was the state of their hearts at that moment? Maybe if felt like God was for them and then against them.

But, verse 17, 18 tells us, ” All this came upon them, though they had not forgotten God.

Then these beautiful words..

their hearts had not turned back.

Do you hear it beloved?

I want to sit in the truth of it, marinade in the power of the love that tethered their hearts to God. They had seen good things and bad things come their way in this life, but no looking back.

I think of Lot’s wife and how she couldn’t bear to move forward into the unknown future. She longed to go back to the old, the familiar, even though it was a place of spiritual darkness. In turning back, her heart chose death over life.

And so I look deep into my own heart…

I’ve seen the good and the bad. I have felt the weight of God’s love and glory and I have felt the pain of loss and rejection. The future can be so scary. What does it hold? Which will tomorrow bring?

Looking back may feel old and familiar and in its own way bring a type of comfort, but I know that life doesn’t exist in the past,only in the present and the future, should God give us that.

So let this become our life song,

Hebrews 10:39

“But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.”

What does that mean? It means we don’t fear the future beloved or even the hard places we may find in the present.

We don’t listen to the siren’s call that says, ” Go back! Let’s just go back to Egypt, we may have been in bondage but at least we had food to eat and drink.

No beloved we take courage.

We have faith that our God alone holds the future, it is He who determines our steps and we let this promise guard our hearts,

” The lovingkindness of God endures all day long.” Psalm 52:1

It endures, beloved. It never ends. So we can put our hearts at rest in Him.

It matters not that the future is unknown. Our God goes with us and we will not let our hearts turn back.

The state of our hearts is much more important than the status of our relationship. What is the state of your heart beloved?

 

 

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