Guard Your Hearts
Encouragement from Kelly Webb
“Whoever is not with Me is against Me, and whoever does not gather with Me scatters.”
Guard our hearts”, that’s what He said…He knew us all too well. I am speaking to the redeemed one, to the one who calls herself a believer, a Christ-follower.
Why would He say that? Out of our hearts FLOWS the issues of life. I have to constantly and continually check myself, to let the Word do its work on me. “Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” Jeremiah 23:29. If I will LET it, if I will look and listen and take in the Word, it will do its powerful job on me. It will show me. It will show me my heart.
This is not a weekly thing that I need this - this is constant. For me it is. If I am being honest and transparent, this is a continual challenge. To let the Word do its job and wash over me, show me what I am guarding in my heart so that I can respond.
With that in mind, it was just a couple of weeks ago, one of our pastors was preaching, and it was getting to the end, and He said a powerful statement:
“You will CROWN Him as Lord of your life, or you will CRUCIFY Him.”
“Kelly, you MUST be careful. Anger grows like leaven. It grows quickly, like wildfire. It would be dangerous for you to live in denial and say it's not there. Look straight into yourself and guard your heart above all else, anger is growing. And it is counter-intuitive.” He wasn’t talking to the unbeliever. Ouch. With that statement, he said, working in tandem with the Word implanted in me….this pricking is what came to my mind:
“Kelly, you MUST be careful. Anger grows like leven. It grows quickly. Like wild fire.”
And then this verse came to mind: “Whoever is not with Me is against Me, and whoever does not gather with Me scatters”
My private altar call was this: “Scrub me from my anger Lord God! Please take it away. Anger goes AGAINST what You are doing.”
It’s true. Who is like the Lord Almighty? We are so unlike Him. What He does and what He calls us into, as redeemed children of the King, is so unlike our natural tendencies. The gathering and the restoring don’t come by anger and the pointing of the finger. It comes in the release, the letting go, not “kicking against the pricks”. I want to be a part of His gathering. His ways of gathering will not be through opposite methods for which He prescribes. This verse used here was said by Jesus to the Pharisees who accused Him of casting out a demon, by a demon. That’s counter-intuitive. We read it in the print, on paper with a yummy warm coffee cup in hand, and boast, ‘That’s right! That’s absurd you Pharisees!”
My challenge to you as I challenge myself, is this: Is everything I am holding onto, is everything that is growing in my heart, in synch with Jesus Christ and His Words, or is it going ‘against’ what He says?”
He has the Words of life. His Words, His ways, ONLY His ways bring life. Lord God! Help!
Cause us to believe You in your Word! Make us see where we are not joining in and gathering WITH You. Help us to see where in our hearts we are holding grudges, holding onto hatred, keeping records of wrongs that are literally counter-intuitive to how You work. We want miracles, we want to see restorations, we want to see You do mighty works in our midst that ONLY You can do, but we MUST step into synch with You! Help us to trust You at your very Word alone.
