Day 311: Guard Your Heart, Don't Block It

Proverbs 4:23

Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

Ezekiel 36:26

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

Block- to obstruct

Guard- To keep safe from harm or danger , protect

I’m sure many of us have lived by Proverbs 4:23, as we should. We have set our sights on protecting our hearts. So we will not get hurt, or so that it will not be abused. Sometimes we’re trying to protect ourselves from the wrong things. What I mean is that we sometimes have our hearts so guarded that we forget how to let those guards down. Guarding our hearts becomes building walls around it so that nothing and no one can come in. Our generation is so afraid of being hurt that we would rather be numb. We would rather not feel anything. I understand that heartbreak happens, at this age many of us have had our hearts broken at least once, but we’re still here. God put our hearts back together and shows us everyday how we should be loved.

We have so many walls built, from hurt, disappointment, betrayal, abandonment, the list can go on and on. It like every time something happens to us we build a new wall and eventually our hearts become unreachable. We forget how to feel, we don’t know how to love or be loved because we are so guarded. We are so blocked off from everything that we don’t even let God in.

Why are we so afraid to let love in? In the sense that God is love, no one can love us the way God will, but sometimes we can be so guarded that we can’t even knock down the walls to let Him in. The amazing thing about God is, He will knock those walls down and pursue our hearts. God wants our hearts, He loves us so much, but we sometimes turn away from that love. We turn away because we view God’s love through natural eyes, not seeing  that His love is supernatural. We don’t realize that God will love us more than the people who broke our hearts, He will not break our hearts, He will not stop loving us. Sometimes we allow our experiences to influence of perception of who God is. When the truth is, our experience with God should change how we perceive the world, ourselves, and other people. We cannot learn to love properly if our heart is caged by walks we’ve built to try to protect it. When we do that we distance ourselves from God and His people.

With that being said we must not assume that everyone is out to get us.

I remember a point in my life where I was so guarded that I wouldn’t allow anyone to love me, or get close to me because everyone that said they loved me turned on me and walked out of my life in an instant. After that I assumed that everyone was the same way, I thought everyone was just going to break my heart. I made it very hard for people to love me, as well as for me to love people because I could not bare the pain of having my heart shattered again. It was like anyone new I met would have to go through a trial run before I would let them completely in, just to make sure they weren’t going to hurt me. I closed myself off because up unto that point in my life had found that love hurts. Then God showed me, love should not hurt in this way. He showed me how I should be loved, by sent people, good, genuine people into my life that would not be there to use me, or hurt me, but people who would wholeheartedly love me. It threw me, because I was expecting them to walk out of my life, and treat me the same the others did. But they didn’t, God sent them to show me what true love looks like.

-Dyamond

A lot of what we go through when it comes to this is, we cannot trust people, we refuse to trust people or we find it very hard to trust people. Also the inability to completely trust and give our hearts to Christ. The first thing we must do is trust God with our hearts. He made the human heart, He tends to every need. If anyone knows how to love us, it’s God. We have to trust that God will not allow us to hurt beyond what we can handle. And yes sometimes we will go through heartbreak, it’s a part of life, trusting God with our heart doesn’t mean we’ll never hurt again, it means that in those moments we trust God to put us back together, and so much better than before. We trust Him to love us through the pain and aches.

All this to say, we cannot allow what has happened to us in the past influence how we love people in the present and the future. Guard your heart, and protect but don’t block it and lock it away. God wants our hearts but we have to be willing to trust Him with it.

Reflection

1. Have you ever had your heartbroken?
2. Did it cause you to close yourself off?
3. Have you ever found yourself guarding your heart from God?
4. Why do think it is so hard for us to trust God and people with our hearts?
5. Discuss this.

Prayer Time

Allow your answers to the above questions guide your prayer, have a conversation with God about what we discussed today. Search yourself and see if you are blocking your heart and let God in.

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening! Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 312!

Day 187: Live to Win

1 Corinthians 9:24

Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.

One of my least favorite statements is,

“I’m hoping for the best, but I’m expecting the worst.”

That statement makes me livid, because no, don’t write yourself off like that. If you’re going to hope for the best, hope for it. Believe it, and if the result is anything less than that then atleast you tried, it just didn’t work out. I think many of us are afraid of being let down and hurt so we don’t expect much out of the things we hope for. We don’t want to be disappointed so we don’t get our hopes up. We don’t want to get our hearts broken so we act like we don’t have feelings. Well, get over it, that’s life. It’s full of ups and downs, heartaches, headaches, and disappointments, but all of these things work together to make us better people. God uses all of these things to mould and shape us. The biggest disappointment would be, if we let our insecurities and fears stop us from ever trying. I’d rather be disappointed and know that I tried rather than angry and bitter because I never tried in the first place. Which brings me to the title of today’s devo, we have to live to win. We have to give it our all. What’s the use of running a race if you’re not running to win?

I truly believe that God wants us to win, not in a way where we are competing with our neighbors but in a way that we are living the best way we know how. That we are giving everything we have to this life that He has given us. It is apparent to me that God doesn’t want us to sell ourselves short. He loves us and believes in us enough to send His son to die on a cross for our sin. Why can’t we believe in ourselves the same way? He definitely didn’t sell us short.

Over the past year I have seen a wave of, ‘glorified insecurity’, where it has become almost a trend to talk down on yourself and write yourself off. From ‘funny’ memes to grunge tumblr posts. It’s something that has started on social media but has also taken root in the lives of many people. It’s not okay or funny or cute to talk down on yourself. There are many other people out there who are going to do that, why do it to yourself?

We have to learn to believe in ourselves, believe in our dreams, and most importantly believe that God has sent us here with a purpose. Having faith in the fact that God is rooting for us, He wants us to win. Jesus is like our cheerleader, He’s on the right side of the father interceding for us day in and day out. He is rooting for us too. It’s so easy to let fear stop us from trying, but God is not a God of fear. Yes we will fall, and we have to get back up. We will get a few scrapes and scars but it’s makes for a better story in the end. Something my mom always told me growing up, before Kanye said it, “What doesn’t kill you will only make you stronger.” She’s been telling me this all my life. Whenever I got a no from an audition, or didn’t get picked at a showcase, she’d look at me and say that statement. What that meant was, don’t let this stop you, I know it hurts but you have to get up and keep trying. Let it fuel you to do more.

All this to say, live to win. Live for something bigger than yourself and don’t write yourself off. You are much more than you think you are. God made you for a reason, live like you believe that.

Reflection

1. How often do you talk down to yourself, or think less of yourself?
2. Have your written yourself off?
3. Are you running this race to win?
4. Do you believe that you can win?
5. Do you know your worth

Prayer Time

Allow your answers to the above questions guide your prayer. Whatever you feel the need to talk to God about today, talk to Him. Leave the self-doubt, fear, and insecurities behind.

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening. I really do love you and I want you to know that. Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 188!