Let God guard your heart

We have an issue. Girls need to have a better handle on not lying to "protect" their emotions & feelings.

It's a bit hard to do that though if you're feeling like God is out to break your heart, and you're running from Him for that reason, and putting up walls around your heart.

Most girls I have seen start of in the world as innocent and beautiful. They are open emotionally, but usually they are happy. Then they get older. Someone hurts them. Justice is perverted. It breaks her heart. The smile disappears. They clam up. After a while they learn to smile again, but it's not the same. The innocence is gone. They are a good fake. They grow numb to some extent. They have walls around their heart, and they aren't going to let anyone in. They don't cry, but they don't smile either. Usually they get quite successful though, because they can be tough like the men. There is just one problem... they aren't men, and being tough is killing them.

Girls, putting walls up around your heart will starve it of the love it needs. Then you in turn start looking desperately for love, but on the same hand you're pushing it away. It's no wonder boys are confused with girls. On one hand you say you want him, but on the other hand, you are pushing him away.

You can't seem to admit the truth of something being wrong because that would be showing weakness, but you still want him to do something about it. When he believes you that "nothing" is wrong you get hurt further, so you build up the walls higher. I know lying is easier than being vunerable and telling the truth. We don't want to be weak, but being like fine china means being breakable. Being soft means being mouldable. Being a flower means you have to open up and risk getting crushed or wilt and die.

If you decided to be tough and brittle, it might work, but if you break, you will shatter. If you are soft, yes it will hurt, especially at first, but you will become strong, truly strong, in a way that you didn't realise was possible.

Now, I'm not saying you won't ever get hurt. Love hurts sometimes! But He will protect you. He will hold you. If you trust HIM rather than yourself.


Phillipians 4:4-7

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!
5 Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;
7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

God says to rejoice ALWAYS! These people were being persecuted. They were getting killed. How much more should we rejoice when things go wrong?! Praise God when it hurts. It glorifies Him, and it makes it hurt less. It's like you're a flower that has been crushed, so you give God your full fragrance and say do what you will with it God. I have spoken to girls (and been one myself), who find it hard to trust God in situations like this. We don't want to trust Him, because He might not do anything, and it terrifies us. He is not out to break your heart. Actually God is out to heal your heart.

Then He says to let your gentleness be known. Um, sorry to break it to you, but that hard-hearted feminist doesn't cut it. I'm not saying you have to be a pushover, but you do need to be gentle, and it needs to be visible to all!

God wants us to trust Him and not fear.

I Peter 3:6 (AMP)
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].

Don't fear or let yourself give way to anxieties. Guard your mind. Instead pray, pray, pray! God hears your prayers!

Then the peace of God will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Oh, the peace.

Yesterday was such an insane day for me. I was walking home, and I was thinking, it's been such a weird day. I mean, I don't feel bad about it, but seriously hasn't been that great as far as the external. (I guess this was part of the peace that surpasses all understanding is about too.) Then I realised part of the weird feeling was that everyone else was feeling sorry for Felicity (or would if they knew what was happening/happened), but I wasn't sorry for Felicity, and neither did I want to be. Sure I wanted some things to change, but I wasn't crushed or incenced.

In all that I realised that God didn't want my heart to get broken. He didn't want me to feel crushed, and want to throw emotions in a box and hide them in the closet or something as a result.

I guess it's about thinking about His protection going further than just not keeping you from getting run over by a car, mugged or whatever, but it's also about Him keeping my heart safe so that I'm not afraid to trust Him with my emotions and feelings.

Last night I was just reminded so much in my own life that God is NOT out to break my heart and He is not out to crush my feelings. So often people talk about "break my heart God" and it's supposed to sound holy... but seriously, He wants to protect it, and He wants me, and every other girl to trust Him to protect it rather than feeling like I have to get tough (hard hearted) after things go wrong, and it's just easier to be "mean" and "tough" and that's the only way to succeed in life. That's wrong.

Oh, hurting Girls. God loves you and He wants you to trust Him with your heart so that when things go wrong and you're getting pushed around, and your life is blue... (or your clothes!) when your team is losing, when the nation is in turmoil, when no-one likes you, when the electrician fixes everything excepting your problem, and you have a 7 minute walk in the rain. He wants you to be so secure in Him that when it happens, and while you may be flabbergasted and don't like is happening, you are not feeling sorry for you. You have the peace that surpasses all understanding, because God, is your God and He is taking care of you. It's not cliched. I wouldn't say it if it wasn't true in my own life.

Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion which can not be moved but abides forever. Psalm 125:1

True Love

True love is not based on the merit of the recipient. It instead is based on the purity of heart from the giver. As we learn to love like He first loved us we start to grasp true love. People think that you can not love without getting it in return. To some extent that is true. You cannot love if you do not know how to, and the way we learn to love is because "He first loved us.", however just because one must have love to be able to give it does not mean that one must get it from the recipient. True love's source must be God, because His love alone is pure.

What do They Have in Common?

What do Todd Bentley, Mike Guglielmucci, Roco Leo, and Paul Cain have in common?

2 Samuel 14:14
For we will surely die and become like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. Yet God does not take away a life; but He devises means, so that His banished ones are not expelled from Him.

So pray for them. I am.

Rejoice Always

A few weeks ago I was on my way to an evening church service on Monday night. I had worked that day and was exhausted. Just to prove the point that I was exhausted, Rebecca drove us there because I was too tired to drive. We had both had long, wearying days, and both were complaining a bit. I was so tired I didn't feel like I could handle her problems as well as my own (i.e. I can complain, but I can't handle you complain - oh dear, you probably can't really handle me complaining so well at the moment either), and so I suggested that we both just keep quiet for a bit. Suddenly I had a thought to sing. Mind you, I didn't exactly feel like singing or praising God, but I thought I would give it a go. I sang one line, "Rejoice in the Lord and again I say rejoice." Suddenly my spirits lifted. I didn't feel so down or worn out. I suddenly felt like the air must have cleared, and started talking as so, and realised that I was the only one who felt the difference.

The others had not had the moment of lifting that I had in my Spirit. They didn't lift Him above, and their feelings did not change. In the moment I lifted God above my feelings, my feelings changed. Yet previously I was the tiredest and grumpiest of the lot!

God says many times in His word to rejoice always, and to give thanks in all things. I would suggest that this is for more reason than "All things work together for good to them that love the Lord and are called according to His purpose." This is because as we praise Him, we are lifted up with Him. He lifts us up above the circumstances that weigh us down. In worship we are "casting our burdens (cares) upon Him".

And lest I make this sound dreary, rejoicing in the Lord is praising Him! It is joyful, and even if you don't feel joyful when you first make the choice to worship Him rejoice, and see how His joy (which is your strength) can make a difference.

"If I be lifted up... I will draw all men unto me."

"If I be Lifted Up"

Jesus said, "If I be lifted up...I will draw all men unto me."

Maybe the reason the church is having trouble drawing people to Him is because we aren't lifting Him up and letting Him do the drawing.

Asking Advice From Whom?

I wrote this for someone (haha do that a lot these days) however I decided against actually saying it to them in that context. I realise though, that there are probably a lot of people out there who don't know how to look for an appropriate person to ask advice from. This is for you.

Remember not to disregard younger people's advice, and don't just accept older One's advice simply because they are older or younger. ;) Weigh it up against scripture, and take all advice with a pinch of salt. Something I use as a guide with advice is simply who knows what they are talking about.

i.e. I don't take political advice from people who's worldview I don't agree with, and who don't really know the topic. - I take political advice from people who's worldview is similar to mine and who are strong believers in apologetics, study their topic, know their Bible and are likely to know more than I do. I don't take take Biblical advice from people who don't even know who "Ruth" was in the Bible. I ask for advice from people who can spit out the references as fast as you can fire the questions of where was that scripture found, and who understand what they mean, and don't read their own agenda into scripture. I don't take advice on relationships from people who are messed up, but from people who have many godly relationships, and know the godly worldview. (That worldview is incredibly important!) Hopefully you get the idea.

Coping

"God won't give us more than we can handle" God has seen it all. He can handle anything. The reason we can't cope is because we don't "cast all our cares upon Him" and let Him carry our burdens.