lunes, mayo 27, 2013

Guarding my Heart

Knowing my heart and knowing my weaknesses, I am intentionally avoiding a letter my friend may or may not have written me. We know that words have the power of life and death, the power to heal and to destroy, and I know that I am more susceptible to this than others. Whatever worth I have is from God, but I know in my heart that my friend's words could crush me. I know this should not be, but as I said, this is a weakness of mine. I think the basic issue is fearing man and putting more weight on what my friend (or husband or sister or parents or teachers) thinks about me rather than caring only what God thinks about me. At our retreat this weekend, we looked at Psalm 27: "The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Who will cause me to tremble?" If we are being faithful and obedient to God, and pleasing Him, then we need not worry what others think of us; however, that is easier said than done. The only remedy I know of is to pray, and to meditate on the verses above, plus other passages dealing with this issue. We also need to guard our hearts and to know them, to know what specific things will tempt us to sin in actions or in thought, and to avoid those things. Sinful thoughts will always be waiting outside the doors of our hearts, and it is up to us to keep the doors of our hearts shut and fastened against sin and not let it in. (Gen. 4:7.) A verse I have been meditating on lately is Ps. 73:25 "Whom have I in Heaven but You? Outside of You, I desire nothing on earth."

2 comentarios:

Leslie dijo...

My 16 year old daughter and I were talking about something very similar today. One of the biggest things we desire is to be accepted by others, to be loved. Failed relationships are often a rejection and what a tangled web we weave to avoid that. I am sorry about the letter and think you might be wise not to read it or at least to pray well before doing so. People will always let us down, but Jesus never will.

The Resident Writer dijo...

Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts.