The past few days I have been talking to God about my heart. I was impatient with my husband, irritated with a project I needed to complete, and angry that the pandemic just won’t go away! It was a full on pile up of emotions mixed with a sense of frustration. Makes me think of an accident when one car hits another car and then that car hits the next car and… you get the picture.
That is the way I was feeling. An emotional pile up.
But God…
I say but God so much that a friend put the sign in my front yard as a surprise one day. So I sat down with my emotional car pile up and asked the Lord to help me find the but God. And to my surprise I heard the Shepherd’s voice whisper: “Joanne, your heart has become hardened.” Each bump car hit took me down the wrong road– the road of self pity. Anyone been there? And self pity detoured me to stuffing down each hit. And I bet some of you reading this are right where I was. The little stressors when added to a pandemic and the incredible division in our country and the lack of love and… well you know where I am going with this. When the world goes upside down, little things become blown out of proportion. Our ability to cope is limited.
But God…
Rich in mercy because of His great love for us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. (Ephesians 2: 4-4). My heart was hardened because I had decided to just buck up; keep going and paying no attention to my heart. Time for a heart check up. And this was the scripture the Lord led me to. His mercy, His love, even in the midst of self pity, in the midst of feeling overwhelmed reached me.
And His mercy reaches you too. If you are feeling overwhelmed (hard not to these days) particularly with so much uncertainty in our world, do a heart check. Allow the Holy Spirit to mend your emotional pile ups. His love is the force that breaks through, finds our hearts and causes them to beat again.
But God…
Rich in mercy, reaches down as you reach up, resuscitates our hearts, softening them to receive His mercy and grace and then puts us back on a path of hope. So if any of you can relate to this let us hear from you. Together we can encourage one another in our faith.
