Day 337: When the Heart Goes Bad!

John 14:17

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

Philippians 4:7

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Today let’s talk about the heart, and the condition of it. Sometimes our heart can go bad. Not in a sense that sin has completely taken us over, which is one way a heart can go bad but in a sense that sometimes it’s too broken. What I mean by that is, we go on day by day without ever really addressing what is going on within us until it is too late. Our hearts become so broken and battered that we begin to think that there is no way out. Many of us know what a broken heart feels like, and sometimes that can seem to carry on for a very long time, the heart takes time to heal. It sometimes seems like the pain just keeps coming. We all want our hearts to remain healthy and fresh and we even get to the points when we try to convince ourselves that we are okay when we’re not. The truth about life is, sometimes it hurts, and that means our hearts will be broken. But the truth about Christ is He can put the pieces back together and make it stronger than it has ever been.

For those of you who have had your heart broken, you know what can come from it. There is so much pain that takes root, anger starts to arise, then bitterness, and unforgiveness, then hate. When our hearts are ruined because we cannot seem to get past the pain we throw ourselves into a deep and dark world of hurt. I know these things are hard to get over, I know it hurts, but somewhere we have to find hope that we will be okay again. That hope that I’m speaking about is only found in Christ. Christ is the light and the only way out of this deep, dark, painful tunnel. We cannot dwell in our pain it will get us nowhere. Facing the source of our pain is going to hurt in the moment but it’s part of the process of healing. We are in need of some healing to take place. We are all or have all been walking around with our heart’s light going more dim as we go.

I want to talk about how some of us are walking around with a rotten heart and it’s not completely our fault. Sometimes we put our hearts on the line and they get ripped to shreds and we continue to put our hearts on the line for others and continue to get hurt. Some of us are suffering from bitterness and guilt that is eating away at us. Some of us are holding grudges and harboring unforgiveness. Some of us can’t seem to let go of the things ruining us. Some of us are letting fear run wild in our hearts. I name all of these things because we are walking around everyday not dealing with what is really going on in our hearts. We can see everything in everyone else but we tend to overlook it in ourselves.

We live in a time where mental health has become more widely spoken about. But we also live in a generation that is told by older generations that we are too soft. We’re too emotional Therefore we hide our feelings we cover them up because we do not want to come off as week. Let me tell you right now, if no one else wants to deal with your broken heart, God will. If no one else wants to talk you off a ledge God will. There are too many people in our generation that are suffering because their heart has gone bad. Too many people are walking around like zombies because they do not have it in them to love anymore because they have been hurt so much. We are walking around with fake smiles trying to be okay because society says we have to be.  This is not the life God wants us to live. Yes we will go through seasons of pain, yes our hearts will be broken but God is a healer. It is not His will for us to harbor that pain or let it manifest in us. There is peace with the Father, there is healing with the Father. We get to a point where we begin to project our feelings onto God. We forget that the one who created the heart is the only one who can completely heal it.

All this to say, we have to check in with our hearts and be honest about what is really going on within us. There so much pain in each and every one of us, but trust God with your heart. He will protect it and guard it. God gave us feelings for a reason, he gave us emotions for a reason. He gave us tears for a reason. Do not allow your feelings and pain to be suppressed because of what someone else thinks. God cares for them. He sees every tear, He hears every prayer. Look for hope in Him.

Reflection/Prayer Time

Take the time to respond in whatever way you feel led. Pour your heart out to God tonight, if any of this resonated with you talk to God about it and allow Him to heal your heart. God is a healer, he wants to give you peace, let Him do it.

I love you so much! I hope you have an amazing day or evening! Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 338!

Day 137: How Are You?

Ecclesiastes 3:4

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

“Hello, How are you?”

“I’m good, and you?”

“I’m great, thanks for asking.”

This conversation or set of statements look familiar to you? We go through these statement on a daily basis. Without really thinking about it; it has become second nature to already have a prepared answer when asked how we are doing. Usually, the answer is, “good”, “great”, “fine”, and on a rare occasion we might get an “okay”, Rarely do we tell people how we are actually doing, not even our closest friends.

“How are you?” has become another way of saying hello, instead of a real concern. I’m not saying that we are not concerned with how others are doing, I’m saying that the question “how are you?’ does not mean how are you anymore. It means hello. Many times we already know what people are going to say when we ask and we know what to say when we are asked. But I have a question, if God asked us how we were doing, what would we say? Would we be honest with Him about everything going on with us, or would we tell Him that we are “fine” or good?

Now to take it a step further, sometimes we say fine when everything is falling apart, we say well when we are doing terrible, and we say okay as a cry for help. This may not be true for everyone, but I know it is true for many of us. We talked before about how there are many people walking around broken and if we just take the time to pray for them or with them, they will experience God’s healing. We talk about how we can save a life just by checking in on someone. Now what about ourselves, what about when we are walking around broken. Many of us are walking around broken but ignoring our feelings. We must stop this and take care of ourselves.  We often believe in healing from God for others, but why is it so hard to believe for ourselves? Why is it so hard to pray for ourselves? Why is it so hard to check in with ourselves when we are falling apart? Why do we cover up our own pain? We are not helpful to anyone else if we are at the bottom of the pit ourselves. It reminds me of when I’m having a bad day and I’m sure most of us have experienced this. I can walk around falling apart on the inside, but I’m holding it together on the outside, barely, but I’m holding it together. The moment someone asks if I’m okay, everything comes pouring out. We hold things in until we cannot hold it anymore then it all comes storming out of us. We hold too much in and we become like a ticking time bomb, all it takes is for someone to press the right button and we will explode all over the place. My friends, this is not how we are destined to live, we serve a God who works around the clock, giving us twenty-four-hour service. We can come to Him at any time of day or night and He will be there. We do not have to harbor the pain we go through. We do not have to silence our struggles or whatever it is we are going through. We do not have to suppress our emotions, it is okay. God is here for us.

We neglect ourselves too often, sometimes we have to sit back and consider how we are actually doing. What’s going on inside us, check in on our soul, see how everything is going. We all want to be selfless, but that does not mean that we neglect ourselves to do so, it does not mean that we forget about our own feelings. Sometimes we just have to stop and pray for ourselves, sometimes we have to cover ourselves. Sometimes we have to give ourselves some “me time”. It is necessary, please don’t neglect or overlook yourself, it’s not a healthy way to live.

Reflection

1. How are you doing?
2. Really, how are you doing?
3. If God asked you how you were doing right now, what would you say?
   
   

Prayer Time

Take the time today to check in with yourself, search your heart. Bring it to God. Pray for yourself today, you know what you need to pray for yourself, lift yourself up in prayer today.

I love you, and I pray you have an amazing day or evening. Take care of yourself today. Share this with someone and be sure to come back tomorrow for Day 138! Enjoy you day!!!