Day 12 - Issue 25
Proverbs 4:4 NLT
My father taught me, “Take my words to heart. Follow my commands, and you will live.”
I have discovered over time that my heart is the core of my being; the source of my will and my emotion. My heart is the location of my connectedness with God. For far too long I relied upon my mind. This is active and agile. However, my mind was and remains so easily deceived.
My daughter had a friend who was caught up in the tsunami that devastated Thailand in 2004. Her schoolfriend was rescued but first had to be persuaded to let go of the debris he was clinging to in the water. This had been his source of hope for many hours, keeping him afloat in a sea of destruction. In his mind it offered salvation, yet it was a false salvation. His rescuers could lift him into a boat and take him for much-needed medical and practical care, but only if he could be prized from this false hope.
God invites us to exchange false hope for a trustworthy promise. Yet, if the false hope has sustained us for many years, it will take quite some convincing to give it up. My false hope offers me a clear explanation and immediate gratification in the context I find myself in. Circumstances may be bleak, yet I have convinced myself I am managing, despite the high levels of stress expressed through anger, disappointment and depression.
Your battle will always be between what your mind convinces you of and where your heart is leading you. This is no easy tension to resolve, the more so when the stakes surrounding your personal well-being are high. Yet, one clear purpose in life is for you to discern the nature of your true rescuer, Jesus, and discover the quality of life that arises once you learn to hold fast in your heart and manage the traffic that terrorises your mind.
This is the constant battle I wage. It’s my mind that can wake me in the darkest hours of the night, terrorise me and rob me of my peace. I have to learn to live out of my heart and so transform my mind.
QUESTION: What are you clinging to that might be a source of false hope?
PRAYER: Lord, help me take your words to heart and trust deeply in them.
