Heart health isn't just physical though, it's spiritual too! Recently, I have had too many challenges to my spiritual heart health! The issues of life can sometimes cause our hearts to feel heavy. Worry, anxiety, and depression have been the main culprits in my own life. I don't subscribe to victim mentally, but I acknowledge that each of us have our own enemies and those are the ones that attempt to load my heart down with care. The good news, the best news is that I know the One who says he will take ALL MY CARE (worry, anxiety & depression). I know the One who says, "be anxious for nothing, but through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God." (Philippians 4:6). See I know the Burden-Bearer. His name is Jesus. He is MY LIVING WATER. He is willing to take my heavy heart and give me a heart that flows with God's love. I am learning that I have to surrender to the flow of God's love in my heart.
Paul teaches us some important lessons in Romans 5:3-5 (Amplified Bible)
"Moreover (let us also be full of joy now!) let us exult and triumph in our troubles and rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that pressure and affliction and hardship produce patient and unswerving endurance.
And endurance (fortitude) develops maturity of character (approved faith and tried integrity). And character (of this sort) produces (the habit of) joyful and confident hope of eternal salvation.
Such hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us, for God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has be given to us."
Don't stop reading! I know, Paul is prescribing some challenging assertions. Be full of joy now. Triumph in your trouble. Rejoice in suffering. Pressure, affliction, and hardship=patience, endurance and confident hope. It sounds crazy, but it's not. It is TRUTH. The resiliency of the human spirit is undeniable. How much more resilient (actually supernatural) is the reborn spirit that has the flow of God's love rushing through it? God has poured His love in our heart so that we can have confidence that our troubles will not overtake or overwhelm us but will work together for our good and cause us to become mature in our faith.
The Greek word for "poured out" or "shed abroad" is ekchuno (ek-kheh-o). It means to be poured out, shed forth, to metaphorically to bestow or distribute largely, to gush out, to run greedily out, to shed abroad and spill out! (Strong's Concordance #G1632 MySword for Android App).
The Greek word for "heart" is kardia (looks familiar right). It refers to the human organ of the body but also the center and seat of the spiritual life. It is the soul or mind as the fountain or seat of thoughts, passions, desires, appetites, affections, purposes and endeavors. It also refers to the will and character. (Strong's Concordance #G2588 MySword for Android App).
So this takes me back to Paul's prescription in Romans. Life's pressures and hardships affect our heart, both physically and spiritually. Worry and stress can make us physically and spiritually sick. The good news, the best news is that the One who formed us gave us the heart and the healing. The LOVE of GOD is poured out, is largely distributed, is gushing out INTO our heart through the Holy Spirit who is given to us who believe! When I think about this LOVE, I don't see a trickle, a stream or even a river...I see a powerful waterfall. I see myself standing under His Love and it being poured out over me...every inch of me...not missing one part of me. A few years ago the Holy Spirit gave me this:
Your Love (April 10, 2009)
Your love is like a waterfall crashing
down upon my soul,
The release of its sweet fragrance
can only make me whole.
Your love is like a waterfall crashing
down upon my soul,
It pounds at the deepest places
filling up all dead spaces.
Your love is like a waterfall crashing
down upon my soul,
Creating in me new places to flow-
all the places, I don't yet know.
In your waterfall, I feel so free.
Only there
do I see
all you have created
me to be.
In your waterfall, I can soar
to places I've not gone before.
Your wings of love to guide-
taking me up so high-
way up there-
I can fly!
Surrender to the Flow! <3
© Ronda Wagner and Kelbey Chronicles 2013-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Ronda Wagner and Kelbey Chronicles with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
