YOUR HEART MATTERS

YOUR HEART MATTERS

Hello Everyone. This is Shirene Gentry with the Identity Unveiled podcast.

I hope this podcast will give you something to truly think about.

Ladies, this message is paramount whether you are a teenage girl or a mature woman. God cares not about what has hindered you up to this point. While the message is relevant, age is irrelevant.

Why should you even care about whether you are walking in your God-given identity? Why not just live day to day going about your tasks and responsibilities? There’s nothing wrong with this unless it keeps you from addressing heart issues. Not just heart issues, but places of deep wounds that you would rather ignore. I sure did.

If you have read my book, Identity Unveiled, you will know that 2002 was a spiritual milestone year. The defining date was May 19, 2002, which coincidentally happened to be my mother’s first birthday after her passing. I was at church listening to a guest pastor. Not being one to frequent the altar, I was compelled that Sunday while my husband was out of town for a convention. My prayer was, “Lord, I’ll do whatever it takes to make an impact for you.” What happened in the next 48 hours was God ordained and Satan orchestrated.

I was physically, emotionally, relationally, and spiritually worn out after my parents’ death in 2001, eight weeks apart, and followed by several years of long distance caregiving. I can now look back at that period of time and realize that God was using the season of grief as the vehicle to get me to the end of myself because I was already worn down and worn out.

I do not spiritualize everything that occurs in life, but I can most assuredly say that what I describe on page 75 of my book became a critical crossroad in my belief system without me knowing exactly what was happening at the time.

Can what God ordains and what Satan orchestrates intersect through one occurrence? Yes. Friends, this is unseen spiritual battle that no one sees but that wages conflict in the deepest parts of your being. God and Satan are vying for your heart and you may not even know it!

So what do I now understand what took place? God knew I was almost – critical word there – at the end of my proverbial rope. My altar prayer was the invitation he needed to break me. My prayer’s intent was to share my mother’s deathbed conversion and about the forgiveness I extended and six days before she died.

I believe Satan asked permission to tempt while God’s purpose was to sift. Forty-eight hours after my altar prayer, an out of the blue telephone call  should have meant nothing. In my early 40s now, God ripped the band-aid off of my teenage heart.

Here’s what Rick Warren shares in Purpose Driven Life:  “While temptation is Satan’s primary weapon to destroy you, God wants to use it to develop you” (p. 201).

Satan wanted my weariness on every level to be used against me; God wanted my weariness on every level to get me to the end of self-reliance and pride.

Although there were things happening in my emotional life that I did not understand, I did know these three things:

First, in the weeks that followed, I knew that my previous way of handling negative emotions by stuffing them was no longer working. Now, my emotions ran away from me, and I wasn’t sure what was happening. God had opened all the places inside my heart that had been hurt by all the people from my past that I had cared about.

Second, I would seek God like never before. I started to pour over scripture because I needed answers. I needed God to show up in the details of my own storyline. Previously, I had known just enough about God to not really know him at all. My sporadic time spend reading my bible was no longer a box to be checked off as daily requirement fulfilled.

Third, I knew Satan was out to destroy me. Why would he waste his time with me? I didn’t realize that my identity was at stake. My only insight during this tumultuous time was that I must be a threat if he was throwing the bait of temptation. I was simply trying to get inner peace, inner clarity, and for calm to replace the chaos.

What I did not understand then but understand now is that a solid identity gives way to substantial impact. And how does this show up? Relationships! And what we haven’t had in terms of our past relationships – real and perceived – is what God wants to get to the heart of. So God will do whatever it takes (sound familiar?) for us to finally pay attention to our damaged heart because he loves us. He knows that we are simply in “heart management” mode until he makes it whole.

We are familiar with the narrative in Genesis 3 during the exchange between Satan and Eve. Look at what is happening beneath the surface. Earthly eyes see fruit from a tree planted deeply in the soil of what’s easily seen; spiritual eyes see the needs of human heart, which God plants in all of us, and is unseen.

What God is determined to uproot, Satan is determined to upend.

Here is what I believe to be the process:

1. FOCUS

Satan noticed Eve looking at – focusing on – what she didn’t have rather than what she did  have.

In my darkest times, I thought my family deserved better. What was my worth? What was my value? I felt – and the key word is felt – that I had no value. I had no confidence. But it was more than temptation. When there is a deficit of confidence,  there is an abundance of doubt.

I felt like my life was merely – and ONLY – a stepping stone for the birth of my children. Outside of that, what was my purpose?

It wasn’t what I had, it was how I interpreted what I had, and how my thwarted way of thinking was focused on inaccurate perceptions.

Let’s get back to Eve and the enemy’s schemes.

I have no way of knowing this because scripture doesn’t speak to this, but I can’t help but wonder how many times Eve approached that forbidden tree. I would be willing to bet she visited it daily. Wondering. Watching. Wondering and watching lead to What if. And while she wonders, watches, and becomes engulfed in what ifs, Satan waits.

Once he detects a pattern, he pounces when the time is prime.

What if God is really holding out on me with this one thing?

At the core of the spiritual battle for the heart, it becomes a battle for the mind that focuses not on what is, but what if.

Because Satan observes and waits for the opportune time – this we do know from scripture – I bet Eve’s observable habits became the bait that Satan used.

Let’s also look at this idea of focus as it relates to the past. Specifically, your past. Satan wants you to focus on what you haven’t had. There are times that, if I’m not careful, I tend to think about what I didn’t have from my family of origin, namely emotional security. For you, this could actually be a legitimate need from your childhood or upbringing that left holes in your heart. Or it could be a perceived need that had no basis for legitimacy. In other words, a lie. And we always believe lies before we know the truth. Satan will use all of it to destroy your identity. Because if he can, you are falling short of your freedom and fulfillment.

One last method that Satan uses is to keep you focused on what you think you must have to be happy and whole.

In summary, how our focus works against us may show up in these ways:

What we don’t have rather than what we do.

Focus is on the one thing we think we cannot live without.

A legitimate need that hasn’t been fulfilled as it should have been.

Focus is what should have been but was not.

A legitimate need that is veneered in a lie, thus making it illegitimate.

Focus is on a legitimate need that is veneered in a lie, thus making it Satan’s goal being your disobedience.

Satan uses our environment to entice to get an internal reaction. This is where his enticement meets our erroneous thinking. This is what I will label the God Gap. Our heart lies in the balance.

2. FALLOUT

What works against us that wasn’t part of Eve’s backstory? The fallout for us is that sin, through pain, are already working against us. She had no prior fallout to fall back on. Unfortunately, we do.

The pain of prior generations that is preserved, perpetuated, resulting in a pattern. In my family line, the weak link is marriage. In graduate school, an assignment in my MFT class was to create a genogram, a visual tool going back three generations, including your own. In my adopted family, there were 15 marriages, some substantiated, some not. What about your family of origin? Are there any “inherited” patterns that Satan wants to use again you?

Focus gives way to fallout.

Fallout is nothing more than seeds of doubt that, over time, plants lies in our hearts as payback for sins of a prior generation.

And that is God’s ultimate goal for our hearts: He wants to repair our hearts through reparation.

Friends, can you see what happens beneath the surface of our lives at a much deeper level?

The battle for your heart and mind is nothing short of spiritual warfare. Why does it matter? Because what’s at stake is your heart. Did you know that in Hebrew, the same word used for ‘heart’ is the same word used for ‘mind’?Once your mind is healed, your heart is healed. And once your heart is healed, you no longer go through the motions of living. You have a purpose, and you can fulfill God’s specific plan as his daughter. That’s another main reason you should never compare your life, your experiences – past and present – with anyone else. Just like your life wasn’t meant to look like anyone else’s, neither is your heart like anyone else’s!

Lisa Bevere writes in her newly published book Strong, “God has a plan for your life and the devil has a scheme. His scheme is to knock you out of God’s plan. I must warn you the devil will not fight fairly. The moment you became a daughter of God, you were marked by God’s Holy Spirit and noted by the enemy” (p. 3).

Let’s not miss this very important point: What’s at stake in claiming your God-given identity is the condition of your heart. Not what your outward appearances and behaviors seem to tell the world, but what God sees that no one else does.

One of the very first things I had to do was surrender and hand over the parts of my heart that had been hurt, both legitimately and illegitimately. These were justified needs and a perceived needs, respectively.

When you allow God access to those painful places, something miraculous happens. Here’s a simple ABC acrostic to assist you:

1. You can finally ADMIT that your heart has been damaged.
2. Your BELIEF not in God, but about God will need to be changed.
3. Heart CHANGE occurs after 1 and 2 occur.

Ladies, I do not know what your past or present struggles have been or are. I do know this: whatever unpleasant promptings are occurring in your heart is God’s way of saying, “I have so much more for you and you don’t even know it.” Have you lived with a damaged heart for so long that you don’t even know what it would be like to be at peace and whole?

As a daughter of the King, let’s approach God’s throne. Approach.  Don’t avoid.

Hebrews 4:16 tells us to “approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Don’t you need a healed heart? That’s how you know something is off kilter.

God knows you. He searches you. He perceives your thoughts from afar. He knows us even though we run in the opposite direction.

Aren’t you tired of running? Running away, that is? Let today be the day you change directions. Run to the throne, your King, your Father, the One who knows your deepest needs and understands your deepest emotions.

He’s ready to repair.

You cannot trust him if you don’t know his heart toward you. That’s the heart of the matter. As you learn more about his heart toward you, you will trust him with what you haven’t had in your life story.

The heart of the matter is your heart.

Because you’re a daughter of the King, you are worth the effort! Your heart and your impact are at stake. Don’t let the enemy of your soul win. Don’t wait another day on this side of heaven living a substandard life. Start living life to the full (John 10:10)!

Be dedicated. Be determined. Be dead set on defeating Satan’s plan.

Pray my prayer: “I’ll do whatever it takes to make an impact for you.”

Identity precedes impact.

Your heart matters. Why? Because God created your heart. More than anything else, he wants you to know HIS heart while he repairs yours.

How do we know his heart? Taking your first step toward his throne.

With every step you take towards him, he will begin the process of healing.

Ladies, there are secret experiences that have occurred in your life that are buried so deep that perhaps the people closest to you aren’t even aware of what you have endured. Whatever these awful things have been, know this: God wants your heart healed, regardless of your age.

God’s plan covers your lifespan. You are worth the effort, and you are worthy enough to have a huge impact.

Identity precedes impact. God waits for you. Take one step toward him in confidence. You will find grace and mercy in your time of need.

Until next time, this is Shirene Gentry with the Identity Unveiled podcast.

God bless you!