Digging Deeper

Heart Guide for Lesson 7:
Recognize and Replace

There are two slippery conditions we all have to deal with regarding our emotional state and they are directly connected to being dis-connected from our God:

1) Left unattended, the heart of the old nature fills up with the garbage of negative emotions quicker than a dumpster and can be just as hard to clean out.

2) Left unattended, the heart of your new nature empties out quicker than a colander, so you have to keep it positioned under the water of revelation and Spirit-life that is always flowing your way. Otherwise, you will leak away the fruit of the Spirit that He is pouring in.

There is a place inside all of us where we sense our peace, joy and confidence level rising or falling throughout the day. We are usually being either uplifted or dis-spirited as the day progresses, ever shifting from an empowered to an unempowered emotional state. We can be up one moment, get a troubling phone call and be down the rest of the day. On the other hand we can be absolutely pinned down by terrible fears or depressing thoughts, stumble into a moment graced by God and be gloriously set free!

We have probably all been conditioned to believe that external causes are the problem, but that is just not true. We are completely in charge of our inner state and can learn how to manage it so that we can be free of both past and present negative emotions that stress us up. Note what the Lord is saying in this scripture:

Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it is the wellspring of life. Proverbs 4:23 WEB

According to scripture, who has God placed in charge of your heart? Who is the one who can determine every moment of the day whether your inner state is 'springing up' into life or sinking into death? Is this God's job? No, it is yours! We are the ones called by the Lord to guard or keep our hearts. We are the ones in charge of our own inner state!

Notice that He says 'with diligence.'That always means it's going to take active, intentional effort on our part to reap the blessing. The truly remarkable thing is that although outward events can dramatically shift our inner state, we are actually the ones in charge of how we feel on the inside.

We can access any inner state we want to! We do not have to be the playthings (emotionally speaking) of whoever out there wants to sink our inner state, we can actually learn how to align with heaven, get quick recoveries (when stuff happens) and stay 'powered up,' ready for anything.

There are at least two levels of attainment available to us:

1) Restoration: Preparing our inward state to hold up under the pressures of daily life requires recovery of the natural grace that got lost along the way. For countless reasons - not least of which is getting free of the pain - we need to recover from any emotional brokenness emanating from our past.

2) Mastery: As we learn to manage our emotional life, we not only receive freedom from the past, but we gain the graced ability to reign with wisdom over our own emotions, making it possible to live even the most active or embattled days with deep peace and Spirit-led resourcefulness!

What a blessing! To be able to not only manage our inner state, but actually master it. Every point of disconnect can become a staging ground for charging up to heaven to exchange any emotion you don't want for something the Lord actually desires you to be feeling. He truly does want us living in that empowered state with His joy, peace and confidence carrying us along like a river. It may take a good deal of "diligence" in learning His ways: It may be hard, but it's doable!

Return to Recognize and Replace: Head to Heart Guide for more ways to go deeper into these truths or stay 'on course' by going to the...