Learning to steady your moods by drawing closer to God Our moods can rise and fall like the tide, sometimes calm and steady, other times overwhelming and all-consuming. Yet, even in the ebb and flow of emotion, God remains constant: inviting us to bring every feeling to Him and find steadiness in His presence. Experiencing […]
The Madonna lovingly holds her son and you can only imagine the thoughts she pondered and treasured in her heart. What do you hold most precious in your life, truly? Those who know you best will probably have a good idea from seeing how you spend your time and money. Sometimes, you appreciate the value of something fully only when it is taken away from you – freedom would be a good example of this. Mary was holding far more than her son – she was cradling the very Gospel of your future hope and it is this that is precious beyond words. Not everyone sees it this way for other things are more precious to them:
This is not a beauty product advert – it is somewhat less superficial! Most of us want to be pure and know that we are meant to be pure, but what does it mean to be pure? The simplest dictionary definition gives this: ‘not mixed or adulterated with any other substance or material’, stating that it can be applied to matter, colour, sound and morality. For the child of God, the heart of the matter is the matter of the heart.
‘God is looking for clean hands and a pure heart’ – Monica Johnson
Something dangerous can happen in the heart of a person and in that of a community when a general distrust arises. It is then that cynicism is at work and leads on to a sceptical hardening of the heart which questions everything and believes nothing.
Just as hardening of the arteries is dangerous for physical health, so creeping cynicism can be dangerous for spiritual health. It was Pharaoh’s hard heart that led to his rejection of God and the tragedies experienced in Egypt. A hard heart is a dying heart.
