At least once a week I experience traffic gridlock as I drive to Atlanta. And I am rarely, if ever, bothered by it. But I remember one week that was different. I was enraged. I could literally feel the blood pumping through to the top of my head, and every time someone pulled in front of me, I wanted to ram them. Clearly something wasn’t right. Was I in resistance?
Resistance and the Heart
Continuing with my post on the heart, the heart sends out clues to signal us, like red flags of distress. These waving banners are sent up like flares to warn us and attract our attention. They signal us in order to alert us of issues rumbling below the surface. Our hearts are very apt to get our attention. The question is whether we will listen to them or divert our focus to a fictitious issue. Actually, if we don’t want to listen to the heart, we can take up a crusade for a non-issue—slay a dragon, rescue a maiden, or lead a campaign. It’s completely possible for these delusions to mute the urgency of our heart, but when the silence comes, as it always does, our hearts will not be quiet.
Extreme agitation, stress, frustration, cursing, and bouts of anger can all speak of deeper issues lying just beneath the surface. And ultimately only the Spirit can reveal the secret issues of the heart. The Word says the heart is desperately wicked, who can know it? But this doesn’t mean I can’t or shouldn’t feel it. I’ve been given a heart in order to feel, in order to experience life, and in order to live within the reality of me. That stupid traffic, the messy kitchen island collecting all my clutter, an item in the back of the car that keeps sliding around until I want to drive off the side of the mountain just to make it stop—my heart will make extreme that which is not important in order to get our attention.
Letting Go of Resistance
My overwhelmed heart is to push me to inquire of the Spirit. I must address the real issue with Him or be shipwrecked on a sandbar of menial distresses. These mundane aggravations are just raising my blood pressure, not solving the real issue. It will all continue to compound until the real issue is addressed. As my friend used to say, “The heart is such a nooge!”1 Yep, the heart can be a massive nudging force to get our attention.
The heart is the needle upon the record of our lives. We’re called to live with awareness of our hearts because it’s who we are. The mind thinks it’s the source of life, but in reality it is only as we live out of the heart that we can truly be touched.
Guard your heart more than anything else, because the source of your life flows from it.
Proverbs 4:23 NOG
In my next post, I will show that God puts a premium on living from the heart.
1 Nooge: an absolute pain in the neck.
Wow, these posts are so powerful. I can identify with all the issues you mentioned. Being, nerves split over traffic or the menace in rear seat that won’t be still. Stress from all the menial tasks I haven’t even started. While pondering this Heart Matter, I remembered Ezekiel 36:25-30. You may be going there soon but I had to go and read this scripture that HE promises Israel, for HIS NAME SAKE, HE will give us a new heart and spirit , he will replace it with HIMSELF living in me. I also must wait to hear from the LORD,… Read more »
It’s amazing to me how often something from the Shulamite center speaks to exactly what is going on in my life. The outward symptoms: rage, irritation, frustration, etc. point to a deeper issue, and only the Spirit can bring that to the surface. Thank you so much for sharing again. Love to all the Shulamites. Wanda
You are always a wonderfully fertile field where these posts can take root and flourish! Love you Wanda. Thank you for the encouragement and love!
This runs deep, John. I wish you could do a whole series on living from your heart. There’s so much in God’s word about this. I’m just remembering that Martha did a series a while back on “A Matter of the Heart.” Will have to revisit that. We just have no excuse, John; Father has provided, through His Spirit, so many ways to catch what He is doing and saying within our heart, rather than watching life pass us by: we can pray, listen, agree, ask, believe, decide, remind, stand, return, etc., etc. You’re so right, John, about avoiding the… Read more »
Your in luck, I have at least two more posts on the heart coming. And actually it is partly just for you because you are the one who got me back up on this subject, after you emailed me. Martha’s The Heart of the Matter is amazing. Do you have the CD series? Love you and bless you Pauline. Thank you for your rich comment.
He has given us a new heart! Praise His holy Name!
Ezekiel 36:26. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you.
It has been done!
Yes, I praise Him for the new heart. Hold on with me, for next weeks posts. Thank you for reading and commenting Debra!
Cha-ching! Right where I was yesterday in a situation at work. God please give me ears to hear eyes to see as You deal with my heart. Thank you John for sharing.
John, the posts the last couple of months or so have for me, and it seems corporately, been expanding exponentially to the heart of the spirit if you will. Really good stuff.
“The question is whether we will listen…”
Once we willingly go to Him and acknowledge the fruit we are producing He is so faithful to shed TRUTH and LIGHT on the root. When the root is laid bare we can choose to admit our responsibility (sin) and repent. And then comes renewing and transformation…”beauty for ashes”.
Praise God that He loves us too much to leave us the way we are! Praise Him for creating us with a heart that seeks after more of Him.
Praising Him for your insight John!
Well, John, this post is a “Nooge” to bolster the Holy Spirit ‘s nudge to check out my heart with HIM. This makes the issues with the heart so clear. Bless you, thank you for “letting” me hear your heart.