6 HEART CONDITIONS TO GUARD AGAINST

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When I was a child, I believed everything. I believed my father was the strongest man on earth. I believed God could truly do all things. I was surely sure that God was able to handle anything.

As I grew older, I experienced moments of failure, uncertainty, disappointment and a whole lot of not so good drama. I’m pretty sure you can relate with that too.

You know what honey?

It’s okay to cry in moments like that but dangerous to let those experiences influence your heart.

Read: When We Call Him Abba

The heart is the citadel of power. It determines a whole lot than we actually know. Click To Tweet This

Scripture says in Proverbs 4:23,” Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life’. (NLT) emphasis added.

It says ABOVE ALL ELSE guard your heart. Why would guarding the heart be top most priority?  It’s because the heart determines all else.

Read the above paragraph again.

Why would guarding a heart be top most priority?  It’s because the heart determines all else.

The heart is so important that it is the first thing God changes when we encounter Him at the point of salvation. Ezekiel 36:26

Where do you feel joy?

Where do you feel pain?

Where do you feel love?

Where do you feel conviction?

Where do you feel numb?

THE HEART!

Even though a COLD PERSON MIGHT CLAIM TO FEEL NOTHING but he definitely feels COLD.

The heart feels.

The ability of the heart to feel is what processes our experiences and the result of the process sets the course of our life.

I remember having been through an excruciating heartbreak some years back. I was shattered in many different shades of the word shattered.

I laid before the Lord crying and I kept saying, “I love you Christ but trust me we are no longer going to do these things your way. Feel free to lead me in other areas but this one cos you’ve failed me real bad.”

Have you ever spoken to God bluntly? Well I did during those times.

Oh how I love the Lord. 

He didn’t bark at me. He didn’t shoo me off. He just said,” Annie, don’t let the experience change your heart cos if it does, you would have given it the permission to direct the rest of your life and you won’t love the outcome. It was just an event. One you should grow from not one to define you.”

Need I say my perspective changed immediately? Heck no honey; but the Lord loved me through that dark season of my life and here I am today a better, prettier Princess #Winks

You see, all of life’s experiences are targeted towards the heart because the heart is the real deal. Click To Tweet This

So your dad never bought the bicycle he promised from when you were two up until you became all grown.  Therefore situations like that have somehow influenced you to doubt every time God makes a promise.

Perhaps you tried a business one time and you fell flat on your face and so you’ve become crippled by fear of failure?

Could it be that Life has beaten you so bad that disappointment has become your surname therefore you go about hopelessly?

May I remind you that experiences are meant to grow and not go us?  Click To Tweet This
You should still be on stage after the famine, hurt, and what not rolls off.

If you truly want to live out the best God has for you. If you want to fulfill the Assignment on your life and see your dreams go from paper to playout then you must guard against these 6 heart diseases/conditions.

Read: 5 Simple Actions That Make a More Fulfilling Life

1.    The fearful heart: Fear is one of the cruelest torments one could ever experience. Perhaps you fear that the past might catch up with you, that the present would never be as desired or that the future hasn’t got the slightest chance at becoming. I need you to know that your fears can never be more powerful than your faith in God. Therefore you must decide to counter those fear streams with oceans of faith in God and His powerful ability at work in you, through you and for you. Be reminded of God’s word in Isaiah 35:4 “Say to those with fearful hearts, "Be strong, and do not fear, for your God is coming to destroy your enemies. He is coming to save you."

2.    The double minded heart: It’s pretty easy to move from full lights on faith to not being so sure that our dreams will be especially when we decide to entertain negative pictures or suggestions. The double minded heart makes you unrecognizable before God. This is why Apostle James says such person shouldn’t think they would receive anything from God-James 1:8. It makes one unstable and instability is the reason some people can’t pull through a project from start to finish. Others have many incomplete projects and keep starting new ones which they soon abandon to start another new one. A double minded heart robs you off the joy of fulfillment. It makes you retrogress when you ought to be far ahead in your pack. Don’t let your heart become so. Fix your thoughts on the ability of God in you. Never forget that He is way bigger than our minds can fathom.

3.    The hopeless heart: Sometimes it’s really difficult to keep hope alive especially when you’ve been though disappointment repeatedly. 
  I need you to remember sweetheart, that yesterday’s rain doesn’t negate today/tomorrow’s sunshine.  Click To Tweet This
   So keep your hope alive no matter how bad it gets in your storyline! Remember Proverbs 23:18 “For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off (KJV) 

    Read: Don't Cast Your Substance

4.    The Hardened Heart:  We tend to get this kind of heart when we’ve been offended. Scripture says “a brother wronged is more unyielding than a fortified city” Proverbs 18:19 

   Even though the unyieldingness in this verse refers to relationships with other humans, we can also become unyielded/hardened towards God when we get offended by Him, by our church, by spiritual leaders or anything connected to our faith. The danger posed by this kinda heart has the capacity to annihilate our next good season. You must guard your heart from offences. Apostle Paul says Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many”  Hebrews 12:15 (NLT). 

   Bitterness and offence precedes hardness of heart. Protect yourself   from being defiled by them.
     
        Read: 7 Choices You Will Regret in 7 Years Time

5.   The Anxious Heart: Personally I have noticed that whenever my heart falls into this state, the Lord warns me by opening my eyes in a night dream or a day-vision. I’ll see myself walking around barefooted. For years I didn’t understand until one day when it seemed like an every night dream. I became deeply concerned and I asked Him. The scripture He dropped in my heart was Ephesians 6:15 “and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.”(NIV) after which the Lord said, “The gospel of peace is simple. It is the truth that when you cast your burden on me, I truly lift them off so you don’t have to keep moving about with it. I am your rest Annie. I still don’t see what you’re anxious about when I already got the issue fixed the first moment you asked for my help” My eyes popped. 

    Read: God hasn't Got Amnesia

    He said anxiety makes me unready to receive what I’ve prayed for and exposes me to Satan’s attack.

I looked up several other translations, every commentary available on that verse and I saw clearly that I indeed heard the Lord.

Anxiety is proof that we doubt the strength of God. It keeps us restless and we cant effectively defend the territories assigned to us neither are we ready to receive new ones. 

I have sat up on this one. I encourage you to do same.

Read: Are You Ruining Your Future By This?

6.    The Simple Heart: This sounds good but its actually a huge danger to one’s purpose or dreams. The word simple refers to one who believes every word, is easily enticed or easily swayed by other people’s convictions.

     I used to be this way in the past. In fact I once dated someone who lied to me repeatedly and got angry I wasn’t picking it such that he called me gullible. I mean he was a “highly placed” believer and I didn’t think he would comfortably lie about anything and so I trusted without waiting for time to reveal who he really was.

Many young people are like that. We think the world sees things through our eyes. If only we knew that it isn’t so. This heart condition leaves us often broken, often hurting, sometimes confused and perhaps angry at life because our simple heart keeps driving us to the face of unending disappointment.

Scripture says that the cure for a simple heart is wisdom. “O simple ones, learn prudence; O fools, learn sense.” Proverbs 8:5 (ESV).

Prudence is a branch/pillar of wisdom. 

The Hebrew word for prudence in that verse is “ormah” ¹ and is translated as subtle-ty!  

You know the enemy wants us to believe that being subtle is evil. Well it isn’t.  If it were? God wouldn’t have made the serpent subtle. God creates no evil and so if he made the serpent the most subtle of them all (Genesis 3:1), it means that subtlety is a skill-one which is important at that.

In fact, Genesis 3:1 explains that all the animals God made had some measure of subtlety but the serpent was the most subtle.

Please do not mistake this skill for being manipulative. Not at all!

According to Merriam Webster dictionary, Prudence is careful good judgment that allows someone to avoid danger or risks and on the other hand, Subtlety means having or showing skill at recognizing and understanding things that are not obvious. So that skill can’t possibly be evil or be associated with the devil.

Now see this, Proverbs 22: 3 says “A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.” (NLT)

We can see that the cure for simple heart is prudence (a pillar of wisdom). Apostle James says if any of you lack wisdom, just ask! James 1:5

So stop letting people take undue advantage of you. Ask God for wisdom to relate with people and train your eyes to recognize situations/people that conceal the capacity to destroy or hurt you.

This is why I keep telling young people that there is no such thing as “blind love”. Yeah, you should close one eye in marriage as they say but please never do that before you make those vows. Remember “The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.” Proverbs 22:3

Prudence secures the glory of your future. 

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Committed to your Fulfilment

Anne Atulaegwu