The fight over our souls has already been won by Jesus many moons ago. He was victorious for us, and that victory is set in stone. But the battle over our spirits contending with His is a continual battle. One of the greatest enemies in this battle to connect with Him is busyness. Not so much the busyness of our bodies, but of our heart and mind.
“Above everything else guard your heart, because from it flow the springs of life.” Proverbs 4:23
Division of the heart happens when the word of God is choked out by our cares. Imagine that our body is a greenhouse and our heart and mind complex is the soil in which things are planted. The connection we have with God happens when we read the Bible, which is the most powerful seed in the universe.
When we read the word of God, we’re planting a seed with much potential. But what happens if this seed of God is planted on a thorn bush? And how did those thorns get there in the first place?
“The seeds that fell among the thorns represent those who hear the message, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the cares and riches and pleasures of this life. And so they never grow into maturity.” Luke 8:14
The soil of our heart can become crowded by our thorny-cares. In greek, the definition of cares literally means a divided mind. Entertaining our cares, worries, riches, and pleasures all empower inferior seed to compete with the ETERNAL one. The fight for “sunshine” and life is very real between what we entertain and the power of the word of God living in us. Thing is, we can be super consistent with our Bible reading but if we go on about our day letting other “seed” choke out His, we produce fruit that can be catastrophic to His plan. If we bring our attention to the one voyage set before us, to love God, we will see the bountiful fruit in our life that God promises: his blessing and riches, ETERNAL pleasures, and of course the fruits of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and self-control.
My personal accomplishments can easily be my idol and create a DIVIDED heart within me. PRIDE follows performance based living. His blessing, reward and the fullness of God follows when I seek HIM with my WHOLE heart. When our ONE aim is to love God really well, our heart is WHOLE.
“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” Hebrews 11:6
Are you curious what it’s like to have a heart that is made whole by God? It’s not a magical switch that you turn on, it takes action because it truly is a daily battle. Let’s make room for the seed of the Word of God to flourish with THESE 3 HEART MANTRAS…
Here are 3 daily mantras to prevent a heart divided between our flesh and our spirit. In doing so, I believe there is TRUE HEALING not only to our spirits, but to our physical bodies as well!
“Listen carefully to my words. Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; or they are life to those who find them and health to one’s whole body.” Proverbs 4:20-22
STEADY SPIRIT
Pray: “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” Psalm 51:10
Recite: No matter how divided my heart was yesterday, God makes me new. As I seek Him, He makes my spirit strong and steady.
WILLING SPIRIT
Pray: “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me.” Psalm 51:12
Recite: God desires joy for me. As I walk with love and obey Him, He sustains me.
BROKEN SPIRIT
Pray: “My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart you God will not despise.” Psalm 51:17
Recite: My spirit connected to God’s is a lifeline. I need Him to survive well, to love well and to live well. I am His.
“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12
Peace and lots of love,
Bri Joy
BRIANNA JOY 