When Your Heart Needs a Tune Up
Well now, friend, so happy you came wanderin’ over this way today. Step right on inside the gate and come on up here on this ol’ front porch with me for a lil’ spell. If you’ve ever felt your temper git to risin’ faster than an ol’ rooster that just got splashed with a pan of cold water, then Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:21-22 might hit a little bit too close to home for your comfort. Jesus said that murder ain’t just somethin’ that happens with the hands. It plum starts way down deep in the heart. Now that’ll stop you in your tracks quicker than a lil’ ol’ raccoon caught sneakin’ into the chicken coop in the darkest part of the night. And Proverbs 4:23 reminds us to guard our hearts because everything we do flows from there. Jesus wasn’t lowerin’ the bar. No, siree! He was raising it high enough to make us git to lookin’ up.
Most folks read “You must not murder” in Exodus 20:13 and think, “Well, at least I haven’t done that.” But Jesus steps in and says that anger, bitterness, name callin’, and wishin’ someone would disappear like last year’s Christmas fruitcake all fall under the same ol’ heart problem. He wasn’t just talkin’ about fist fights. He was talkin’ about the fumes. The kind of odors that git to simmerin’ inside us like smell of a burned up pot of beans that’s been left way too long on the stove.
And, friend, we’ve all been there. Somebody walks into the room, and your blood pressure plum jumps way up like a big ol’ bullfrog on a hot skillet. Somebody cuts you off in traffic, and suddenly you’re speakin’ in new tongues that are not any kind of language from the Holy Spirit. Jesus says that kind of heart trouble is sho’-nuff dangerous. Not because He’ wantin’ to shame us, but because He’s wantin’ to heal us.
Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:31 to get rid of bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and all kinds of evil behavior. And 1 John 4:7 reminds us that love comes from God, not from our own strained efforts. We can git to lovin’ the unlovable because God loved us when we were about as lovable as an ol’ angry porcupine plum stuck real tight in a fence.
Father, help me guard my heart when anger rises. Teach me to choose love when my feelings want to choose anything but. Fill me with Your Spirit so my reactions look more like Jesus and less like my old self. Heal what is wounded and soften what has hardened. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Friend, as you git to journeyin’ right on back into your day, take this here notion with you. Love is not just a feeling. It’s a choice. It’s a plow that breaks up the hard ground of the heart. It’s a lantern that keeps on shinin’ even when the wind blows. And it’s the one thing that makes the world look up and git to seein’ Jesus in you. So, walk right on out there today with a full heart that’s real tuned in to heaven and let the “Jesus kind of love” be leadin’ your way.
With joy,
Gwen
