W O M E N
F I N D I N G
"Keep thine heart with all diligence: for thereout cometh life." Proverbs 4:23 Footnotes: For as the heart is either pure or corrupt, so is the whole course of man's life. Geneva Bible 1599 When I first came back to the Lord, after several years of walking in my own ways, He gave me a vision of my heart. It was like a house full of rooms with closed doors. The first room was clean swept with sun coming through the windows and right next to that first room were doors that were closed and dark. I knew all too well what this vision meant, but little did I know the process by which He would take me to get those doors open and those rooms swept with the sunshine streaming in. He has taken me through many trials and hard testings to "keep" my heart and "change" my heart to be more like His. This is a process in which I still find myself and one in which I'm sure will continue until I meet Him face to face. Only recently have I seen just how much He can see things that are in my heart so differently than my own point of view. Ouch. Taking things from my hands that I saw as "good," He began to dismantle and "sweep clean" things I held as sacred but only to find that He sees much differently than I do. This process can be painful, and yet the fruit of seeing His hand at work in my life is rewarding. Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The heart is deceitful and wicked above all things, who can know it?" Ouch...again. This is why the verse in Proverbs 4:23 is so substantial in our daily walk with the Lord. "Keep thine heart with all diligence..." Keep ~ to guard, protect, maintain Diligence ~ to hedge about, guard, protect, attend to, We are to guard, protect, hedge about, and attend to our hearts for out of it flows our lives. The essence of who we are and how we portray Christ. Being a lover of gardens I cannot help but give this attendance of the heart the analogy of the garden and being a keeper of a beautiful garden which would produce fruit for the Savior. Song of Solomon 4:16 compares this relationship with Christ in this sense... "Awake, O north wind: and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my well-beloved come into His garden, and eat His pleasant fruit." And in James 5:7 "Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the former, and the latter rain." Using the analogies of either the garden or the house I can see the contrast of the pureness of heart with either an unkempt garden full of weeds and thorns or a house with very tightly closed doors that need opened and swept. The weeds in our garden can be so many different things. Some examples are: anger, bitterness, hate, pride, fear, disobedience, lust, an un-submissive spirit, lack of faith, etc... A great many things which are not from the nature of God. Many of these things can stem from unforgiveness, discontentment, and pride. This is where the Lord began to deal in my own heart and show me that He does not see as we do. We can tend to see ourselves as "good" because we have a tendency to compare ourselves with others and we can always find someone in which we feel we are superior... God does not look on things from this angle...He looks into our hearts...to find Christ. Our only comparison can be Christ and God's Word. When we begin to look there for judgement of who we are things begin to appear very differently and we are faced with change. The mirror of God's Word is reflected in our lives as we begin to ask God to "Try me, O God, and know mine heart: prove me and know my thoughts." Only He can know what is in our lives and hearts that needs fixing. And this is how we "keep our hearts with all diligence," by letting Him have full reign and judgement of what is in our hearts and letting the light of the His Word infiltrate into our hearts and the innermost chambers of our secret lives. "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock, If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in unto him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Revelation 3:20 Lord, I pray, "Search our heart" and "knock on those closed doors" and help us open every place in our heart and let you in and allow you to show us the things that need to go, be changed, and swept clean. "But we all behold as in a mirror the glory of the Lord with open face, and are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord." II Corinthians 3:18 As Women Finding Grace ~ Let us be found allowing the mirror of God's Word and His glory to have permanent residence in our hearts and lives until we bear the same image of Christ.
0 Comments
For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire." I Corinthians 3:11-15 "And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door..." Genesis 4:3-7 How many times can we say, like Cain, that our countenance is fallen before the Lord when He has not accepted the works of our hands? This is the problem that arose in Cain's offering. He did bring an offering, but it was his own works from the fruit of the ground...from the earth. Abel's offering came from the flock, and was accepted. This same concept came when King Saul tried sacrificing unto the Lord, but not being obedient. ( I Samuel 15:1-30) What we bring to the Lord in our lives and how we bring it does matter and I can guarantee you that when we do not build on the foundation that is laid, which is Jesus Christ, the things that make for gold, silver, or precious stones, we will suffer lack, just as Cain did. We are offered this glorious opportunity to come in repentance and redirect our paths so that our offerings may be accepted. Cain never did this and became so bitter he killed his own brother. He didn't receive the rebuke and correction of the Lord and learn what the Lord required and let his heart be changed. Oh, God, I pray we won't continue in this way if this is where we are. Let us receive the correction and turn from our own ideas to truly bring the offerings you accept. If we truly have a heart after the Lord, He will show us the things that need changing as we walk with Him. I have personally experienced this many times in my own life and I have learned, and still learning, to keep my heart tender and watchful so that I can truly hear from the Lord and bring the offering He requires. Have I had much wood, hay, and stubble burned up in my life? Yes! But I am thankful, even when it is painful because the rewards of truly pleasing the Lord and walking with Him far outweigh the pain of correction and I am so grateful for the opportunity to really know Him. I have most recently felt as if the Lord had put me back on the potter's wheel and mashed me into a lump of clay. This process is not delightful...but, I knew He had a plan. I know that if I stay yielded in His hands that He will make me into the woman that He needs me to be, but this takes a continual yielding and submission of my will, my plans, and my ideas, to know His. I would much rather Him destroy now what needs destruction than leaving me in an unacceptable condition for all of eternity. I am thankful. Let us wait before Him and allow Him to reshape us into the woman he desires us to be. These times we live in call for women of God, hearing His call to bring their very lives and the homes they are responsible for before Him and letting Him show us the changes that need to be made, the repentance that needs to come, and the hearts that need to be set on fire in love with Him again. Let's not harden our hearts as Cain when the Lord brings rebuke, but let Him bring the changes He knows we need and allow Him his rightful place as Lord in our hearts and in our homes. As Women Finding Grace ~ Let us bow before Him in humility and wholly give ourselves to follow His lead.
|