Heart Rescues

Silencing our need for a heart cry – a prayer to the Lord for His help – will always result in further anguish, anxiety, fear and anger. It leads us down a path towards despair, and depression. These dark emotions reveal more about who and what we are than what we would ever care to admit. Our focus on self, and self-actualization is exposed. We may try to hide our reality from others, but we can’t hide it from ourselves. More importantly … we can never hide it from God. He knows. He knows our thoughts from afar. He knows all of our ways, they are not hidden from Him! They never will be.

To change our position, it is necessary to accept that we cannot hide our heart’s true state from God. We must repent. We can choose obedience to the Lord, submit to His will, or we can internalize our heart cry into greater negative emotions – a growing silent scream of discontent. However, inner turmoil will not stay suppressed, it will overflow, it will become known in our actions, and our words.

Choosing repentance brings with it a restoration to the Lord, to living His will for our lives, and growing to trust in Him. He will enable change when we ask for His empowerment to do so. However, growing in trust requires a disciplined mindset. We need to accept that irrespective of our difficulties and trials the Lord will keep us. He will keep our souls, grow them, and sanctify them.

Moment by moment choosing to grow in trust will be strengthened, and it will grow, when embracing His promises. The result will be a composed, calm and peaceful mind in the midst of strife, and struggles. Active trust in the Lord removes the disturbance and turmoil of an untrusting and disordered mind, and replaces it with a steady and stable soul. A soul, fixed and focused on the Lord.

• He redeems my soul in safety from the battle that I wage (Psalm 55:18).

• The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms (Deuteronomy 33:27).

• You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether (Psalm 139:2-4).

• Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:35-39).

• In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety (Psalm 4:8).

#depressed #repentance