The world financial situation bounces like a rubber ball. It’s fragile and unpredictable.  The morning news tells us the financial markets continue to tumble. Financial leaders are meeting to try to figure out how to avert panic.

I clicked from the news to my devotional email and read the Bible verse Mike Woodard highlighted for today.

Proverbs 4:23 “Above all else guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life.”

Perfect verse to counter the unease of the morning news.  I thought on it for a few moments ……

“above all else” .

I sometimes ask the Lord for my “marching orders for the day” and here it was ….. my priority today was to keep a guard at my heart and to do that I needed to faithfully guard what I allowed to come into my thoughts and settle into my heart.

“it is the wellspring of life”. 

Humm…… what I allowed to settle into my heart would overflow into my day … into my relationships … my actions … my reactions.

Tall order when anxiety of any kind surfaces threatening to consume and devour us.

Just as I pondered the “how” of this wise verse another verse filtered through my thoughts and I quickly googled it to find the reference. Listen to the amazing flow of God’s wisdom to us…

Philippians 4:4-7
“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again. Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving present your requests to God.
And the peace of God, which passes all understand, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Wow! Here was the answer to the “how” of guarding my wellspring of life, my heart. God will actually send His peace to do it for me if I simply choose my responses today.

1. Choose to Rejoice in the Lord always. Focus on all the Lord is and offers to us through Himself.  Take one point and make it the meditation of your day.
2. Choose to Remember He is near. When anxiety threatens ask God to remind you that He is right there and He will steady you and give you the wisdom you need.
3. Choose to Respond in prayer. Worry is a call to prayer. Choose to lay your request before God and ask for His guidance.
4. Choose to Retain thanksgiving. Leave your concern with the Lord and focus instead on who He is and His ability to hold you through any challenge. Maintain a grateful heart for even the smallest of His blessings. Watch for them.

Result: His peace, which is beyond understanding, will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus.

Pretty amazing really when you pause to ponder it.

• All our spillover today in our actions, relationships, words, attitudes, will pour from what is in our hearts.
• We are told by God to guard our hearts.
• When we choose to focus on Him (Rejoice) / to Remember He is right there with us/to pray (Respond) even when we don’t feel like it/ and to Retain gratitude in our hearts …… then an amazing thing happens….

God’s peace itself guards our hearts AND our minds…. thorough Jesus Christ and we REST even in the midst of unsettling times!

Lord God, Please help me today to choose to guard my heart through these four steps and to experience Your amazing and
un-explainable peace settling over my heart and mind by the power of Jesus. Thank you for Your wonderful provision when I turn my eyes to You. In the strong name of Jesus I pray, amen.

By Gail Rodgers
Used by Permission

FURTHER READING

The post Pretty Amazing appeared first on Thoughts About God.

“Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them.” Deuteronomy 11:16

Our God is so amazing. Majestic. Gracious. Loving.

We may think, “I would never serve another.” But tragically, it happens all the time. People who have known and loved God — sometimes for many years — turn aside and begin to worship other gods. It seems impossible. How does it happen?

The problem, Scripture warns, is that our hearts can be deceived. The Hebrew word implies being “lured” or “enticed.” It’s the word used for how Samson’s wife enticed him into revealing the secret of his power.

The world is full of bright, shining, incredibly desirable enticements. Look into your own heart. You know what tugs at it there. Those enticements seem so desirable, but they have a fatal capacity to deceive. Over time their place in our heart expands. God’s place shrinks. Imperceptibly, spiritual deception grows. Almost without knowing it, we can end up worshiping these enticements more than the real God.

The deception is thinking that it won’t matter, that God will be OK with divided loyalties, satisfied with a small corner of our life. He is not. “Worship only the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt with great strength and a powerful arm. Bow down to him alone, and offer sacrifices only to him” (2 Kings 17:36).

Even King David, a man after God’s own heart, fell victim to this deception. “Oh, guard my soul,” he  writes (Psalm 25:20). It’s a good prayer for all of us!

Lord, I am so easily enticed. I want to worship you alone. Guard my soul. Build in me a true heart for you above all other things. Amen.

By Dr. Guy Safford
Used by permission

www.thelife.com/dailydevotions

FURTHER READING

• How Does God do It? – by Katherine Kehler

• Our God Is an Awesome God? – by Marilyn Ehle

• The Real God in the Midst of Real Pain

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The post Deception of the Heart appeared first on Thoughts About God.