Battle Ready by Kelly BalarieSample

Day Four: Minding Our Heart

Our heart is often a step ahead of our brain. In fact, some scientists call our heart our “heart brain.” Forty thousand neurons fire off to help us to feel, sense, process, remember, decide, and learn. According to Heartmath.org, the heart sends more signals to the brain than the brain sends to the heart.

To mind our mind effectively we must mind our heart. God tells us to guard our heart “above all else.” It is our most vital organ. “Everything [we] do flows from it” (Proverbs 4:23). For instance, if our heart submits to God, leans not on our own instinctual understanding, and trusts God anyway, we find straight paths (Proverbs 3:5–6). Yet if we do the opposite—forget God, rely on our mind’s understanding, and trust only our wants—our heart likely ventures through rocky terrain. 

What terrain has your heart been on? Easy roads or tough terrain? Hope or angst? Have you been abiding and thriving or orchestrating and managing everyone and everything? 

Thoughts and words are windows to the heart: “The mouth speaks what the heart is full of” (Luke 6:45). What do your thoughts say? 

Look into the eyes of your heart. I do this when I put on eyeliner. As I circle my eyes with the charcoal color, I look for my deep. In me, I try to examine and search for the true condition of my heart. 

In the deep of my being, while staring into the eye of who I am, I wonder, Where am I really at? Am I happy? Am I struggling? I choose to see the real me. 

Likewise, look into your own eyes, examine deeply, and ask: What protective layers do I need to confront? Am I being honest with my God who sees me and wants to love me? 

Get your heart opened right up to the God who desires to repair it. Because when we forgo self-protection and move into prayerful introspection, we find deep connection with God. We actually come to see God at work in us. 

Father, I have little idea of what is going on in my heart. Will You show me what You see? I trust You. I am expectant of the new things You will do. Thank You, God. In Jesus’s name. Amen.