I started writing this message a week ago and saved a draft, but never finished, so trying to finish now. The “Guard Your Heart” theme continued from several different angles. Here are a couple of words along that same theme (not only guarding our hearts, but likewise, our mouths):
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“…According to Proverbs 4, God says you must keep His Word constantly in your ears and in your heart. He says to guard your heart diligently. To be diligent means to be “hard-working, industrious, persevering.” Why do you have to be so diligent with the Word? Because the devil is diligent with his junk. He’s constantly throwing fiery darts at you. He works diligently to make sure the world is surrounding you with garbage he can use to destroy you. But you can protect your spirit from those things by conditioning yourself to respond to every one of them with the Word of God. Change your routine and make a decision right now to begin that spiritual conditioning. Start today and make speaking the Word part of your daily life.” ~ Kenneth Copeland
(And this one had several of our verses from confession #12)
“…if you want to learn to use your faith, start finding out what God has already said. Open your Bible and discover what already belongs to you according to His Word. Then take that Word and keep it in front of your eyes. Keep it in your ears and in your mouth. Proverbs 4:20-22 puts it this way: “My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.” The word attend in that passage means “to pay close attention to something.” The nurse who is attending to a sick patient watches diligently over that patient. Faith comes when you give that same kind of diligence to the Word. It comes when you do what God told Joshua to do, when you let the Word of God “not depart out of your mouth [when we don’t cease speaking it], but…meditate on it day and night, that you may observe and do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall deal wisely and have good success” (Joshua 1:8, The Amplified Bible).~ Gloria Copeland
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But the one that most amazed me with God’s timing/confirmation was a message from Paula White that we listened to Saturday morning (6/28). It was packed full of confirmations of things the Lord has been speaking to us during this time and again, as the devo in the last message so beautifully did, it specifically addressed guarding our hearts in the area of fear, worry, fret, and anxiety. Here are some notes (paraphrases) and quotes from that message:
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“The antidote to fear is faith. The just shall live by faith – So the lifestyle of the just – those who have relationship with God – is faith. And yet there are things that try to keep us locked back in fear. If we stay in that long enough it turns to doubt which turns to unbelief which is a position of rebellion against God. So we have to resist fear.”
For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear), but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control. II Timothy 1:7 (one of the primary passages I’ve been focusing on in addition to our others)
“Proverbs 4:23 says KEEP or GUARD your heart with ALL DILIGENCE, for out of it springs the issues of life.” Paula talked about how “heart” doesn’t just mean the physical organ, but that the Hebrew word can refer to how you think and feel about and perceive things. “‘Keep’ means to GUARD or GARRISON. So, we have to guard the way we think and feel about and perceive things. Fear and anxiety clog your spirit, kill your dream, and ultimately destroy your destiny. God told the children of Israel over and over “Do not be dismayed” – which (dismayed) can literally mean to have a nervous breakdown.” [I checked the Hebrew to verify this – and the Niphal form of the word, which is what is used in the passage she was referring to, can mean to be broken down with fear or be confounded/dismayed].
“As born-again believers, though peace should be our normal condition, very few people live in a place of peace no matter what’s going on. Though there are ups, downs, ins, outs, goods, bads, mountain tops, and valleys in life – we should be able to have a peace that surpasses all understanding through God. The Bible says we’re not Sarah’s daughters [meaning a daughter of faith] if we’re struck with fear and hysteria – if we’re frantic:”
It was thus that Sarah obeyed Abraham [following his guidance and acknowledging his headship over her by] calling him lord (master, leader, authority). And you are now her true daughters if you do right and let nothing terrify you [not giving way to hysterical fears or letting anxieties unnerve you]. I Peter 3:6
“Often we’re reactors because we look at our circumstances – but look at the Bible. Joseph was thrown in a pit, sold into slavery, betrayed by his brothers… At the time I’m sure that could cause fear – you’d wonder – “what’s happening – I’ve served you God,” etc. – We can go through things that are hard to understand, but God’s ways are higher than man’s ways. So we need to trust God – even if our situation looks bleak. God’s ways are so different than ours. The Bible says that unless a seed falls to the ground and dies it has no ability for resurrection [and replication/multiplication] (John 12:24). So when something’s dying in our life, or is falling apart, or is chaotic – our natural carnal tendency is to react and try to hold it all together. We don’t like change; we don’t like loss. We want to know, “what’s this gonna be!?!” – but God’s saying “I want COMPLETE DEPENDENCY on Me – COMPLETE TRUST in Me. This is a transition to get you into a better place. It just doesn’t feel like it. So that’s the fight. We have to resist the spirit of fear.”
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Phil 4:6-7
to be continued…
