Our heart is the core of who God made us to be. At times, God puts a mirror in front of us to show us our heart. We often miss this because we've become too comfortable with the masks we've learned to put on. We're often become scared and run away because we are not used to embracing the strong feelings and passions of our heart.
There are two sides of our heart that we need to be aware of. There is that which God created and intended for us to be. Then there are the wounds and hurts and injuries that are buried in our hearts. Remember (as I discussed in a previous blog entry) that our heart is NOT our sin-nature. Our heart is the unique person God intends for us to be.
We need to learn to embrace who God created us to be. We need to become aware of those injuries and wounds in our hearts that God wants to heal.
Think of those things that unexpectedly affect you in some way. It might be a song, a poem, a movie scene, a passage from a book, a story, something you see in nature, a brief comment someone makes, or a painting or picture. I'm not talking about tear-jerker scenes in a movie where everyone is crying. What I am talking about is those unexpected things that suddenly strike you to the depth of your soul so that you react. It's like they come out of nowhere and catch us off-guard. We might react with exhilaration, laughter, crying, or some other strong emotion. It is something unique to you that most people would just let it pass by without even noticing it. But it somehow affects you in a powerful way.
I believe that those are instants that God is putting a mirror in front of us to show us deep things inside of us. He is catching us off guard where our carefully tended masks and behaviors and thoughts have a gap. He is letting us see things that He sees and wants us to become aware of.
Think too of those times in life where you were at your best. Not when you won a race or picked up an award or did a good deed. But those times you were doing something and felt like it was what you were made to do. You just felt alive and if what you were doing was just flowing naturally from you.
I think that these are all things that can give us insight into who God has created us to be. Many years ago, God took me on this journey where I spent a few months meditating on those things that unexpectedly affected me. During this time, I started thinking of them as mirrors of my heart. For me, it was mostly movie scenes where I have almost started crying. It was like I was just enjoying a movie and then all of a sudden I was powerfully struck by something and waves of overwhelming emotions just started flowing up. As I meditated on it, I remembered more and more things that had affected me this way. I hopped onto YouTube and was able to catch a number of these scenes and they still affected me. I then started to embrace what I was feeling rather than trying to suppress it. It was hard after decades of trying to quell inconvenient feelings. What I found was that these feeling were really my heart stirring to life and action.
As I did this, I noticed that these things all fit into a couple themes. I've come to realize that those were deeply embedded personality traits (the person who God made me to be) that I had largely kept suppressed over the years. I also learned to embrace that person. I found that my natural personality started emerging in a powerful way that it never had before.
My wife and daughters all said that they notice a big (and positive) change in me as this was happening. I've facilitated some small groups where people were on this type of journey and many of them testified to similar things. It was like God was putting mirrors in front of us our entire lives and we were ignoring them; instead choosing to keep putting on masks and being who people around us wanted us to be.
Sometimes these mirrors show hurts and pains that we've kept buried. These are things that God wants to heal and restore in our hearts. At various times in our lives, it seems like God will start bringing up some thing that needs healing or restoration and start steering us toward how He wants to do that. Sometimes it might merely be a minor change or act of forgiveness on our part; other times it might be to go to a pastor or Christian counselor; other times He might divinely do something that sets us free.
God has created us to each be a unique person and special work of art and treasure that walks with Him in a unique way. He's working to make us into that person.
There are two sides of our heart that we need to be aware of. There is that which God created and intended for us to be. Then there are the wounds and hurts and injuries that are buried in our hearts. Remember (as I discussed in a previous blog entry) that our heart is NOT our sin-nature. Our heart is the unique person God intends for us to be.
We need to learn to embrace who God created us to be. We need to become aware of those injuries and wounds in our hearts that God wants to heal.
Think of those things that unexpectedly affect you in some way. It might be a song, a poem, a movie scene, a passage from a book, a story, something you see in nature, a brief comment someone makes, or a painting or picture. I'm not talking about tear-jerker scenes in a movie where everyone is crying. What I am talking about is those unexpected things that suddenly strike you to the depth of your soul so that you react. It's like they come out of nowhere and catch us off-guard. We might react with exhilaration, laughter, crying, or some other strong emotion. It is something unique to you that most people would just let it pass by without even noticing it. But it somehow affects you in a powerful way.
I believe that those are instants that God is putting a mirror in front of us to show us deep things inside of us. He is catching us off guard where our carefully tended masks and behaviors and thoughts have a gap. He is letting us see things that He sees and wants us to become aware of.
Think too of those times in life where you were at your best. Not when you won a race or picked up an award or did a good deed. But those times you were doing something and felt like it was what you were made to do. You just felt alive and if what you were doing was just flowing naturally from you.
I think that these are all things that can give us insight into who God has created us to be. Many years ago, God took me on this journey where I spent a few months meditating on those things that unexpectedly affected me. During this time, I started thinking of them as mirrors of my heart. For me, it was mostly movie scenes where I have almost started crying. It was like I was just enjoying a movie and then all of a sudden I was powerfully struck by something and waves of overwhelming emotions just started flowing up. As I meditated on it, I remembered more and more things that had affected me this way. I hopped onto YouTube and was able to catch a number of these scenes and they still affected me. I then started to embrace what I was feeling rather than trying to suppress it. It was hard after decades of trying to quell inconvenient feelings. What I found was that these feeling were really my heart stirring to life and action.
As I did this, I noticed that these things all fit into a couple themes. I've come to realize that those were deeply embedded personality traits (the person who God made me to be) that I had largely kept suppressed over the years. I also learned to embrace that person. I found that my natural personality started emerging in a powerful way that it never had before.
My wife and daughters all said that they notice a big (and positive) change in me as this was happening. I've facilitated some small groups where people were on this type of journey and many of them testified to similar things. It was like God was putting mirrors in front of us our entire lives and we were ignoring them; instead choosing to keep putting on masks and being who people around us wanted us to be.
Sometimes these mirrors show hurts and pains that we've kept buried. These are things that God wants to heal and restore in our hearts. At various times in our lives, it seems like God will start bringing up some thing that needs healing or restoration and start steering us toward how He wants to do that. Sometimes it might merely be a minor change or act of forgiveness on our part; other times it might be to go to a pastor or Christian counselor; other times He might divinely do something that sets us free.
God has created us to each be a unique person and special work of art and treasure that walks with Him in a unique way. He's working to make us into that person.
