“My heart is steadfast, O God.”

Psalm 108:1

I want a steadfast heart, don’t you? It’s so easy in the chaos of life for our hearts to vacillate between fear and faith. When life’s going well, strong faith is easy. But what about when we are victims of crushing disappointment? I don’t know about you, but in those moments, I find fear lurking in the hidden corners of my heart.

This morning, I read, “My heart is steadfast, O God.” My spirit quickly echoed the words I was reading with a resounding, “Yes!”. That’s what I want. I desire strong and steady faith through the up’s and down’s of life. As I was thinking about this early this morning, I realized I need to daily check my heart health.  For me it helps me to look in and then look up.

When I look in I ask the Holy Spirit to search me. I ask myself these questions under the scrutiny of the Holy Spirit:

• Where have I experienced disappointment lately?
• Where have I experienced shame or self-doubt recently?
• Have I taken any risks, spiritually speaking. Or, am I just playing it safe?

After I look in, I look up. I ask God where I need to surrender more fully to Him. For example, if I have experienced disappointment in an area of life and I find myself wondering, “Why God?”, I verbally surrender that disappointment to the lordship of Jesus Christ. I declare out loud, “Lord, I don’t understand your ways, but I choose by faith to trust you anyway.”

In the realm of risk, it’s so easy for me to play it safe. God wants me to continually, relentlessly, step out in faith. That might mean, sharing my faith in Christ, giving generously – beyond my natural means, going on a mission adventure or taking a new ministry challenge. When I look up – I ask God, “What new adventure do you have for me today?”. God doesn’t want me to be bored. He wants me to live life abundantly with a steadfast heart. The way to keep your heart spiritually healthy is to do a checkup each day!

I’d love to hear from you. What are you doing to keep your heart spiritually healthy? What risk have you taken recently that has stretched your faith? Leave a comment – you might win a prize!   I’m in the mood to give away an I-Tunes gift card to help you build your personal worship play list!~ Just saying……..