On Being Whole Hearted

It is said of God that “He will strengthen your heart.” (Psalm 27:14)

The physical heart is a marvel. This four-chambered, four-valved pump moves 5,000 gallons of blood a day through 12,000 miles of vessels. 

Reading this will be a bit weighty, but hopefully will give you a better understanding of just what it means for God to “strengthen your heart.”

The meaning of this has been veiled for years. Without awareness of this promise British researcher Dr. Alan Watkins has pulled back the veil on a fuller meaning. He speaks of the heart as the body’s powerhouse which has a “hitherto unrecognized role in balancing the entire human system.” He says the heart produces fifty times more electrical energy than the brain, and a thousand times more electro-magnetic energy. As the strongest power source in the body, it coordinates all the other body systems, including the brain, commonly thought to be the dominant organ. It produces harmony throughout the body called entraining. 

Entraining is illustrated as seeing a large flock of birds swooping in flight moving in and out of the swarm while moving as one. So the heart sets the pattern in the body for all systems. When there is a positive emotional state these systems entrain harmoniously. When this happens the brain works better, the immune system functions better, and your hormonal system is at its best.

When our Lord says He will strengthen our heart He is saying He will help our brain, immune system, and hormones work together to their fullest advantage. All of this happens when the Lord is allowed to strengthen our heart by us thinking with the mind of Christ; that is, thinking as He would under our circumstances. That is accomplished if you let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus. Doing so impacts the entire body.

That is why you must “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” (Proverbs 4:23 NLT)

Only when the primary thing is in place (Jesus) do secondary things matter.

Jesus offered this encouraging word, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.” Why?

“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory….” (II Corinthians 4:16, 17)

A Human Becoming

You are a human BECOMING. We are called human beings. 

The term “human being” refers to genetics.

The expression “human becoming” is a reference to development. We are constantly under development mentally, emotionally, dispositionally, etc.

We are constantly becoming more nearly what our Lord wants to craft us to be. God is not through with you yet. Be patient with Him.

He enlightens and empowers us. He reveals His will and He gives resources for doing it. Therefore, don’t argue with God: “Do all without murmuring and disputing” (Philippians 2:14).

The Lord does ALL things decently and in order.

Instead of arguing with God, work with the conviction that the promises of God are true. Mountain climbers seeking the summits of the Himalayan Mountains hire Sherpa guides to assist them. They are hardy local people who live in the mountains and are acclimated to the altitude and familiar with the terrain. 

In addition to showing climbers the way, they provide all their needs. Wouldn’t it be absurd for one of us low-landers to get in a quarrel with our Shirpa at 20,000 feet with a storm moving in?

Yet, we dispute our spiritual Sherpa, Jesus Christ. That is even more absurd.

Don’t flippantly pray that line from the Lord’s prayer, “Thy will be done.” Pray it with heartfelt meaning.

Do you remember these words from a song of yesteryear?

“He’s still working on me
To make me what I need to be
It took him just a week to make the moon and stars
The sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars
How loving and patient He must be
‘Cause He’s still workin’ on me
There really ought to be a sign upon my heart
Don’t judge him yet, there’s an unfinished part.”

Trusting in Him gives peace, knowing the master craftsman is working on you. Psychoanalyst Erik Erikson says the capacity to trust is the very foundation of emotional health. He is so emphatic as to say that unless a person can have this basic inward peace and confidence about life and its outcome, he or she will never achieve emotional maturity and wholeness.

Resign as a self-designer and give the chisel to Jesus.

“In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.” (Proverbs 3:6)

Enjoy the Benefits of Trusting in the Lord

Late in his life, after the un-Civil War, General William Tecumseh Sherman had a life transforming experience and wrote Reverend DeWitt Talmadge, the Billy Graham of his day, the following:

I am sure that you know the God who created the minnow, and who has molded the rose and the carnation giving each its sweet fragrance, will provide for those mortal men who strive to do right in this world which He Himself has stocked with birds, animals, and men. At all events I will trust Him with absolute confidence.

You too can enjoy that same stabilizing confidence by trusting in Jesus Christ as Savior, and by drawing on the inherent spiritual assets. Consider this providential promise: “…My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory” (Philippians 4:19). Not might, or perhaps will, but “shall provide.”

Put this in your basket of promises, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (II Corinthians 12:9).

Don’t discount this proof if His desires to bless and guide you. “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32).

There is a contingency. “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).

All this is based on our trust in Him. The word translated “trust” had a secondary use in that day. It was used in wrestling to describe a contestant holding on to a competitor firmly. Describing our trust of God it means to grab hold on Him firmly, that is to uncompromisingly trust Him. It is a metaphor for relying on Him.

Now you know of His love and desire for you. What difference will it make in your life? Start now, what difference will it make in your life today. May you be blessed and know it.

Persistence in Prayer

“You ought always to pray.”

Jesus taught us to pray. When you pray be more mindful of the One to whom you are praying than that about what you are praying. When you start, “Our Father…” pause and focus on to Whom it is you are praying. 

If it helps you to envision Him as you address Him just focus on Him as a cloud of light, after all that is a description given Him in the Bible. Jesus is spoken of as the Light of the World. Once you are focused on the One being addressed, continue your prayer as addressing Him personally.

Some of His responses must be:

Which one of us is God?

You’ve got to be kidding.

And the saddest of all, I thought you would never ask.

Pray for Him to reveal His will to you, knowing He will once He sees in you the will to do it. Pray:

“Lord guide me, the sea is so big and my boat is so small.”

Often God guides through long and uncertain pathways. However, if we will follow, He will guide.

“Lord, free me from the pressure of doing great things in the world by being great in doing small things for you.
Help me to persist even though I want to give up.
Help me to keep trying even though I can’t see what good it does.
Help me to keep praying although at times I’m not sure You hear me.
Help me to keep living in a way that seeks to please You.
Help me to know when to lead and when to follow.
Help me to know when to speak and when to keep silent.
Help me to know when to wait and when to act.
Lord, please help me to hang on.
Please don’t let me give up.
Help me to remember that,
like the sun in the morning,
You come when it is time.”

Persist in prayer.

How to Encourage Yourself

Jesus Christ is the world’s greatest encourager. Even on the eve of His execution He encouraged them saying: “Let not your hearts be troubled….”

There are times we all need encouragement.

The Latin word for “courage” is “cour.” It is a reference to the condition of the heart. The devil comes along and puts a prefix, “dis” before courage. God has a big eraser. He erases the “dis” and replaces it with “en.” Hence, encouraged.

King David is a case study in discouragement and resulting encouragement.

David had made a series of serious mistakes. The situation is described in I Samuel 30. David was back-slidden, out of fellowship, and wayward. Without the guidance of the Lord, David made some critically disastrous decisions.

He was turned down by the Philistines when he tried to make a pact with them. His army was defeated, his home town burned, and the wives and children carried off. Then his army murmured about killing him. What is a person to do under those conditions?  First Samuel 30:6 tells what David did and I commend it to you: “David encouraged (strengthened) himself in the Lord his God.”

How did David encourage himself? The same way you can be encouraged.

• He retreated, it is essential to get alone with God and let your mind marinate in His Word and on His will.

• He recalled God’s Word. Encouragement comes when life is so overcast you can’t remember what the sky looked like when it was blue, and you wonder if the sun will ever shine again.

Encouragement comes when we open God’s Word and He shows us everything is going to be alright. 

Proverbs 12:25 tells us that “anxiety in the heart of a man causes depression, but a good word makes it glad.”  Scripture affords such good words. 

Scripture says, “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).

When you do, you will know “God is our refuge and strength…” (Psalm 46:1)

• He reflected. Reflect on previous occasions when you were discouraged and God encouraged you. Remember past times God helped you when you were helpless. David had many such occasions and so do you.

Encouragement needs good memories the same way a muscle needs exercise, the same way music needs notes.

Grateful memories of good things past feed encouragement.

Our encouragement in the present is rooted in our memories of the past.

• He requested of the Lord. He asked God what to do. Then …

• He responded to the Lord. He did so by doing what God instructed him to.

You can be restored and\or renewed using this same technique.

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9 ESV