I have learned many lessons while grieving and moving forward with my life. I am re-learning the art of guarding my heart and dreams. These past two years I've been guarding myself out of fear, but now my focus is shifting from fear to Christ's love. Following His guidance is how I am learning to appropriately guard my heart.
Slowly I am letting go of the fear. Fear has been the reason why I chose to keep people at a distance. Fear is the reason why I don't commit to certain things. Fear is the reason why I chose not to dream, chose not to get my hopes up. I have desires and dreams of what I wanted to happen in my life, but I was afraid of dreaming about something that would just fall apart in the end.
Now, by the grace of God, I've been slowly able to let go of fear and grab hold of more of the love of Christ. The past few months I've had a deeper understanding of how great His love is for me, and that kind of love, that perfect love that died for me, is casting out that fear. I still need to guard my heart and dreams, but I don't have to guard it from Him. That is what happens when you guard your heart out of fear instead of out of Christ's love: you think your putting up walls between you and other people, but you also put them up between you and God. He can't heal your heart if you guard it out of fear, because His spirit is not a spirit of Fear, but a spirit of Love.
I have felt the greatness of His love in recent months, and in Christ's love I feel like I could do the impossible. I feel brave enough to dream again, even if those dreams never come to pass. His love is so much better than life itself!
As I let go of fear and lay hold of His love for me, it is still important to guard my heart, but now I do it out of the love of Christ instead of fear. When I guard my heart from the standpoint of Christ love for me, both of us are guarding my heart together. The burden is lifted from me to do it on my own....Jesus is my partner in protecting my heart and dreams and in showing me how to protect my heart. If I want to share a dream I have with someone else, He will give me that nudge in my gut to share it, or give me that gut feeling to keep my mouth shut. If I see something unfolding that could be an answered prayer, then he'll place the person in my path to share it with, or He will give me that gut feeling to keep my lips sealed. Whatever it is, we get to do it together....we get to make those decisions together.... I am not all alone to figure life out on my own.
Slowly I am letting go of the fear. Fear has been the reason why I chose to keep people at a distance. Fear is the reason why I don't commit to certain things. Fear is the reason why I chose not to dream, chose not to get my hopes up. I have desires and dreams of what I wanted to happen in my life, but I was afraid of dreaming about something that would just fall apart in the end.
Now, by the grace of God, I've been slowly able to let go of fear and grab hold of more of the love of Christ. The past few months I've had a deeper understanding of how great His love is for me, and that kind of love, that perfect love that died for me, is casting out that fear. I still need to guard my heart and dreams, but I don't have to guard it from Him. That is what happens when you guard your heart out of fear instead of out of Christ's love: you think your putting up walls between you and other people, but you also put them up between you and God. He can't heal your heart if you guard it out of fear, because His spirit is not a spirit of Fear, but a spirit of Love.
I have felt the greatness of His love in recent months, and in Christ's love I feel like I could do the impossible. I feel brave enough to dream again, even if those dreams never come to pass. His love is so much better than life itself!
As I let go of fear and lay hold of His love for me, it is still important to guard my heart, but now I do it out of the love of Christ instead of fear. When I guard my heart from the standpoint of Christ love for me, both of us are guarding my heart together. The burden is lifted from me to do it on my own....Jesus is my partner in protecting my heart and dreams and in showing me how to protect my heart. If I want to share a dream I have with someone else, He will give me that nudge in my gut to share it, or give me that gut feeling to keep my mouth shut. If I see something unfolding that could be an answered prayer, then he'll place the person in my path to share it with, or He will give me that gut feeling to keep my lips sealed. Whatever it is, we get to do it together....we get to make those decisions together.... I am not all alone to figure life out on my own.