As a single Mom going on twenty years as a solo act, I have encountered my share of heartaches. Before I turned fifty my common response to heartache was to jump right back in the ocean to swim with the sharks again. (I know it sounds like the definition of crazy right?)
But God was patient and he started teaching me how to protect my heart.
The first revelation happened when I was studying the armor of God for my novel, The Shattered Vase. The thought crossed my mind that the breastplate of righteousness covers the heart. If you knowingly sin, you disarm yourself and you leave your heart open to the devil. The consequences of that behavior is most commonly heartache.
There were times when I dated different men and I could literally feel heartache knocking on the door. Because of my love for God I did not open that door and I refused to be intimate with them.
As I was starting to work on my second book, which will be a battle plan to defeat the devil, the Lord directed me to a verse in Ezekiel 36:26-28 (NIV)
26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. 28 Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.
Have you known someone which you felt had a heart of stone? Is it possible that they may have had so many heartaches that the scars turned into stone?
How can you soften someone’s heart which has turned to stone? By praying for God’s spirit to indwell in them and then to encourage them to follow his decrees and his laws.
I have chosen to be celibate for quite a bit of time now and I will tell you that my heart has been softened. I am happier than I have ever been. I am also very socially active but not in an exclusive relationship. I delight in following God’s decrees and His laws because I know that my obedience warms His heart.
For me it makes more sense to live as if I truly love God rather than swim in the midst of sharks.
