Corona Devo 294

There has been a lot going on in our house lately.  Yours too?  Family gatherings, cousins in from out-of-town, late nights, full days and fun.

Mostly.  

If you do the math of everyday life plus the listed things above (or non-stop activity) then you know that there has to be some Jesus-glue to hold things together.  We need to apply Him to our attitudes, spirits and sanity, otherwise the pace of life, regardless of how festive, cannot be (safely) maintained.

Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.  ~Luke 4:45 

Here and there over the past few days I have heard some not-so-nice things come out of our children's mouths, and whoops, I may have heard a couple not-so-nice things fly out of mine.  What's in our hearts comes gushing out of our mouths, and I was saddened by some of our overflow recently.  

But then I realized that in the bustle of the past few days, we (as a family) had neglected our normal Bible study time/discussion/prayer.  We had not been "putting Jesus into our hearts", and so He was not flowing out of our mouths.  

I am not a math person, but I have come to accept the truth that Me + Me = Ugliness.  But Jesus + Me = good things.  Jesus must be in our daily equation, or else the results will be negative.  Our family attitudes and tongues had ventured into negative territory, and as I meeting with the kids (and myself) about our words that had spewed out (or been carefully chosen) to hurt others feelings, it dawned on me that we were not upholding a healthy equation. 

We must be reading/hearing/experiencing God's Word and guarding our hearts with His instruction, or else...there is disappointment, hurt and sin.  Too much of us will come out of our mouths (and hearts) and not enough of Jesus.


Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.  ~2 Timothy 1:14

We must guard our treasure!  Even during busy times, seasons and people...the Holy Spirit who dwells in us is a treasure that is ours to keep safe and guard.  If we become distracted in staying faithful to God, our treasure dwindles and our spiritual-well runs dry, which can be seen and heard in our words and attitudes.  

The scripture is (of course) so accurate.  We have to be on our guard to keep God's truth alive and applied to our lives daily.  The world, people and busy-ness will steal our treasure of God's peace, joy, purpose, etc. right out from under us, cloaked in the disguise of activity/serving/schedule/fill-in-your-own-blank.  But instead, if we are diligent in guarding (and replenishing) the Holy Spirit who dwells in us by staying in touch with God, then we safely guard our treasure.  And what the Lord has given us through the Holy Spirit within us is a treasure.  I realize this freshly each time I allow my circumstances/attitude/stress to steal my treasure.  When I come back to Jesus (and my senses!), the treasure is right there waiting for us to enjoy and to report for duty once again in guarding it in our hearts.

As I sat with our kids and we discussed our lapses in kindness and action over the past few days, we also dug deeper into the "why".  

We had not been planting God's law in our hearts and our steps had slipped.  The law of his God is in his heart; His steps do not slip (Psalm 37:31).  This action will always cause this reaction.  

The kids and I decided that none of us wanted to continue "slipping" in our words, actions or attitudes.  And we knew that Jesus was our remedy and the treasure that we had stopped guarding.  

But today is a new day, and half of any battle is identifying our weaknesses.  Turns out that we had created our vulnerability to impatience/pride/unkindness by stepping away from our posts in guarding the treasure which has been entrusted to you.  

But that was yesterday.  Today, for you and me, and our children: The law of his God is in his heart; His steps do not slip (Psalm 37:31) and we will be careful to Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you (2 Timothy 1:14).

By doing this, we are equipped!  We can feel much more confident about what our mouth speaks because the overflow of the heart (Luke 4:45) will be God-centered instead of us-centered.

Lord, today, please keep us on-our-guard to keep Your truth alive and applied to our hearts, tongues and lives.   

Blessings,

sarah
https://sarahsundy04.blogspot.com/

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