What is in Your Heart?

When it came to the idea I had for this month's blog post, I had wanted to write about aligning our heart with God’s. I had tried writing this blog twice but had to push working on it because it felt forced. I didn’t want the words to be a working of the flesh but of the spirit.

I realized the day before I went to write it for the third time, that God was actually teaching me what it practically looks like to align my heart with His in this small task. And as I prayed over what I should write, the Lord came through and brought me back to an idea I had penned down months before on contentment and revealed how this links to comparison. Interestingly enough, both also spoke to the reality of our heart being in alignment with God’s.

I’d like to start with a small snippet of what I’ve been processing over the last year:

When God first put it on my heart to become a Christian Mentor, I knew I had to step into the social media world (specifically instagram) and I remember distinctly telling my husband that I would be happy with a small community of no more than 200 people following me. This was because I didn’t want to be another voice in the crowd, I simply wanted to be a voice of encouragement to a small number of people who genuinely wanted to grow in their relationship with the Lord.

I knew in my heart I wanted it to be about the followers not the follow because I know behind every follow, every like and every comment is a real person. A person who is dearly loved by God and God by His grace has allowed each person to cross paths with ordinary me.

It was never about going viral.

It was never about being at the top.

It was never about becoming the most important.

But somewhere along the line these values became blurred and I started chasing those very things that I know will never satisfy. I was becoming dissatisfied because I wasn’t seeing the results I was hoping for after being in the social media space for over two years.

Most posts were only getting an average of 10 likes.

Most posts weren’t getting comments.

Most post weren’t gaining a ton of reach.

I was putting all this effort into creating a post to receive minimal feedback, which lead me to feel discouraged and wonder what’s the point?

I knew in my heart I still just wanted to add value to the lives of other Christians, but it wasn’t turning out the way I had envisioned.

And so I’ve had to take a step back and honestly ask myself why am I doing what I’m doing?

Well the first reason is because God clearly told me to and the second boils down to the fact that this isn’t about me; it’s about obedience to the One who called me here.

I can write all the words.

I can say all the things.

I can post all the posts.

But none of it matters if it’s not for Jesus.

When we aren’t content with where the Lord has us, it’s easy to get sucked into the trap of comparison. When we start to compare, we lose sight of the beauty that is right before our eyes and we forget to be thankful for what we have and how far we’ve come.

I’ve been studying the book of Philippians for the past few months and this is the verse I parked on days before I wrote this post:

Do all things without grumbling or disputing - Philippians 2:14 ESV

Notice how this verse says to do all things not somethings without grumbling (complaining) or disputing (arguing).

When our kids aren’t listening or are talking back to us — this isn’t to be met with arguing but viewed as an opportunity to teach and redirect.

When you’re kids don’t like the food you’ve served them — this isn’t to be met with disputing but gratitude that you can explain how blessed they are to have food in front of them and it is a gift from God.

When our husband doesn’t put his shoes in the right spot — this isn’t to be met with complaints and frustration, but a gentle reminder that you love him and are thankful for another opportunity to serve him.

When you aren’t where you thought you’d be at this stage in your life — this isn’t to be met with grumbling but an opportunity to reflect on the work God has done in your life and everything He has already blessed you with.

To add to this, when we find ourselves in the space comparison (which is so darn easy to slip into) our hearts become filled with discontent, which can spill over into how we speak about what we’re experiencing.

But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person - Matthew 15:18 ESV

This really draws my thoughts to Jesus because He didn’t complain once while He faced so many situations where our first response would be to complain.

When faced with temptation — He rebuked the enemy and firmly said no.

When called a liar — He used parables to teach lessons and reveal the darkness in their hearts.

When chased to be killed — He disappeared because His time had not yet come.

When mocked and beaten — He remained silent.

When hung on a tree — He chose to cry forgive them.

Jesus’ didn’t compare His life to those around Him and He didn’t get lost in meaningless arguments or even consider complaining about what He faced because His gaze was fixed on God. He kept His relationship with His Father at the forefront of His priorities and kept a single minded devotion to the purpose He came to fulfill.

For Him it was always about loving those around Him and reaching out to heal hurting hearts. There was no need to grumble and there was no need to argue because He was fully satisfied in His Father.

Jesus cared more about the condition of the souls of the people who followed Him than how those people treated Him.

These thoughts leave me with a question (and this is for you as much as it is for me):

What is in your heart?

Is it filled with discontent, jealousy, greed, selfishness and pride?

Is it filled with compassion, kindness, gentleness, joy and unfailing love?

The second list are qualities we put on, not a destination we arrive at. They are a way of life that the Holy Spirit helps us walk in, to keep us grounded in what matters and to reflect Jesus.

When we lift out gaze up and away from this world and keep it locked on Jesus, we will find our contentment is found in Him. It won’t matter if things don’t go the way we hoped or people treated us in a hurtful way because our hearts will be tuned to Christ.

When we are so satisfied in our relationship with our Heavenly Father, the dissatisfaction and complaints will fall to the wayside because we aren’t looking to the things around us to fill the empty spaces within us.

When we align our heart with Gods we clearly begin to see that all along the way God is teaching us and preparing us for what He has planned and purposed for us.

He is not giving us leftovers or leaving us with second best.

He is actually chipping away at the stone cold parts of our heart so that we would wholly and unashamedly step into the masterpiece He has created us to be and settle into the truth that we don’t need more of anything else but Him.

With much love - Krista

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The Words We Speak

30 DAY SCRIPTURE WRITING PLAN

The verses in this writing plan focus on the words we say because that comes out of our mouth reflects what is genuinely in our hearts. If we want our speech to be filled with what is right and true and to speak words tht build up, encourage and bless others -- then we need to fill our heart with these things. The words we speak should be edifying the body of Christ and anyone else we rub shoulders with.

Learn More

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