In the middle of it, it came to me, that still small voice. In that place during worship where there is no one else; when you are empty enough to hear, quiet enough to listen, and selfless enough to accept. What came to me was the culmination of a summer’s worth of scattered reading, study and music.
The common theme? The heart. It hit me like a ton of bricks! There was the album cover and title of the music I was drenched in, the focus of the book I was reading, and the clear message in red letters from my Bible reading. I had no intentions of doing an in-depth study on the heart but my Father in heaven providentially guided me. The One who is holding my heart in His hand, and wants to make sure I will leave it there. The Holy Spirit guided my music picks, the random grabbing of a book out of a box in my mom’s garage and the haphazard (embarrassingly enough) picking of Matthew to read and study (Jesus talks a lot about what is on the inside!). All so that I might be reminded of what is going on.
The warfare over our hearts.
This should not be new news to us as believers. Yet we live as such. In the book I am reading, there is a powerful quote, “If Jesus said the thief comes to steal and kill and destroy, well, then, why don’t we think the thief every actually comes to steal and kill and destroy? Good grief-the things people just roll over and accept as “God’s will.” The house [speaking of a house the author was trying to buy but lost] was just the move to steal; the Enemy wanted to kill our hearts and destroy our faith and all that flows from it. I think that’s nearly always true. The particular attack is not the issue; he’ll steal anything to kill and destroy” (John Eldredge in Waking the Dead).
Is it the lack of healing for someone you firmly heard God say would be healed? A job change that would have allowed for more family time and more money to give away but was yanked at the last minute? Or a desperate situation with a friend who was falsely accused and yet with prayer, justice has yet to be served?
It is in these things that our hearts can become troubled, weakened or overwhelmed. We can lose heart, lose faith, and that is exactly what the enemy is trying to do. We do not remember the story of Daniel and the vision given to him concerning a great war enough. Daniel prays and fasts for 3 weeks and nothing! Where is God? What is going on? Yet this is the story from the angel… “Since the first day that you set you mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard and I have come in response to them. but the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia” (Daniel 10: 12,13). This is the reality of what is going on in the spiritual realm. If we for one minute forget we are at war, the ramifications are disastrous.
Our armor must be on, our hearts steadfast and our minds filled with the Word. We may yet realize that one more night of holding on, one more hour of prayer could be the moment of victory, the moment of the dawn rising to the east, the mountain scaled, the river crossed, the valley walked through. The moment you might see the God of angel armies battling for your heart and the vast and wondrous story we are a part of for His glory.
God is holding my heart and I will leave it with Him. I will not take it back. I will not doubt that He will handle it better than I. I continue to give it all to Him. I will not lie down during this battle. I will armor up and stand firm for my family, Zambia and for all that God has called us to.
Proverbs 4:23-“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”
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