Thursday, August 25, 2021

Today’s Featured Scripture: 1 John 5:21

Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.

Good morning WBFWE Family. Yes it has been a while since I’ve posted something (over 3 months). An honestly I’ve missed posting the WORD and giving you something to enjoy and/or think about. Don’t let anyone ever tell you that this spiritual walk is a 100 meter dash or even a marathon. This spiritual walk is a lifetime journey. We have the tendency to make things harder than necessary, because of disobedience, distractions, discouragement, not wanting to accept/embrace the new thing God wants to do in our life, holding on to the past, selfishness, being afraid/scared of the change, immaturity, stubborn, fighting God, not ready, etc. But the beautiful thing about it is if we keep WalkingByFaith, keep pressing, and don’t give up we will see the fruit/blessing from the struggle… change… newness… obedience. Your spiritual walk is personal… so take it personal. Your life depends on it and even perhaps someone else’s life depends on it!

I’ve been meditating on and carrying in my heart, mind, and spirit Today’s Featured Scripture for over 3 months now. It is amazing how we put things in our heart that knowingly or unknowingly take God’s place in our hearts. It’s equally amazing how things/desires/wants slip into our hearts and become our focus to the point that we pursue or desire that thing/desire/want more than we pursue God. Out of mouth comes what we feel in our hearts and equally important, we pursue what’s in our heart.

We are a goal oriented, dream chasing, accomplishing our vision type of people. We pursue our goals, dreams, and vision with such vigor, determination, thirst/hunger that we leave no doubt in anyone’s mind that knows us or know what we are doing that WE ARE ON A MISSION TO PURSUE AND ACCOMPLISH OUR GOAL… DREAM… VISION.. That can be a job, career, love, education, relationship, marriage, money, a happy family, vacation, material things, etc. There is nothing wrong with pursuing the aforementioned things with an all in attitude/mentality. The problem is when those things push God out our heart/life or we focus on those things more than Our Heavenly Father, leaving Him secondary, tertiary, or forgotten all together.

In my life I’ve pursued my heart’s desires more than I can count. Even with Yahweh in my life I’ve put things in my heart and have allowed things to come in my heart and take His place. It’s so easy to get caught up in matters of the heart that we don’t realize it’s happening or has happened. And that lil ol heart of ours can be desperate, have a mind of it’s own, wreck havoc in our lives, cause us to not see or think properly, cause us to make the wrong decisions, and can cause us to lose sight of what’s important.

Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that, “The human heart is deceitful of all things and desperately wicked. Who really nows how bad it is?” We as humans don’t know how deceitful the heart is but The LORD does. And with the LORD knowing how this human heart is why do we not trust Him with it. Why do we continually put things in our heart that takes His place? 37 Psalm 23 (New Living Translation) tells us that, “The LORD directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives.” He can’t really direct our steps if He is not in our hearts. He can’t direct our steps if we keep putting things in our hearts that keep pushing Him out. So if He is not in our hearts directing our steps who’s directing us? Is it SELF… our ambitions/goals/desires… OUR HEART!?!

The benefits of having and keeping Our Creator in our heart are too numerous to mention. But we shouldn’t have Him in our heart because of what He does/gives. It should be because He loves us and because we love Him and because it’s the right thing to do as Christians. Exodus 34:14 (New Living Translation) states that, “You must worship no other gods, for the LORD whose very name is Jealous, is a God who is jealous about his relationship with you.” Powerful deep stuff right? Righhhtttt!!! Let me first say that our goals, dreams, and visions can turn into gods if we are not careful and keep things in perspective. We can start worshipping those lil g’s before we know it. We then turn those little g’s into BIG G’s, putting those things on the same level if not a higher level than God, thus competing for His place in our heart.

Our God has a right to be jealous. He has a right to not have to compete for our time, attention, and love. Think about it. With all that He does for us every second of every day. With all that He doesn’t do to us (that we have earned or deserved). The simple fact that He is GOD… OUR CREATOR… He’s earned and deserves to take up our complete heart leaving no chance for Him to be pushed out by anything or anyone else. If we are keeping Him in His rightful spot in our hearts and lives, He will direct us and guide us in pursuing our dreams, visions, and goals, creating a win win situation for us and all we want to accomplish that’s in His perfect will for us.

Prayer: Gracious and All Knowing and Loving God Yahweh thank you for knowing us and understanding us as only you can and you do. Our desire is to keep you as the head of our lives in Jesus name. To keep you as our first thought our first love not an after thought or a forgotten love. Father open the eyes of our heart so that we can see you in Jesus name. Help us bless us to be aware of when we are making you compete with other priorities. Help us to see when we are losing sight of you. Help us to see and feel when we are pushing you out of our heart with other things, people, or situations. We pray and ask these things in the mighty and precious name of Jesus. Amen!

WBFWE

Song: Open The Eyes of My Heart Lord by Daywind Studio Musicians