Guard Your Heart
Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.—Proverb s 4:23 (ESV)
It’s a good thing to quietly hope, quietly hope for help from God.—LAMENTATIONS 3:26 MSG
Hope is essential to life. Without it, life has no meaning, no purpose.
How much truer that is in our spiritual lives. The hope of eternal life in heaven grows more powerful the longer we live in our earthly bodies. Hope keeps us going in the midst of trouble and heartache. It allows us to live in expectation of life with no pain, no sorrow, no trouble of any kind to mar our eternal existence.
Jeremiah is often called the “weeping prophet.” Yet even in his lament over Judah’s sin and turning away from God, he wrote these words: “It’s a good thing to quietly hope…for help from God.” Dwelling on the confusion and chaos of his day only added to Jeremiah’s distress. The prophet knew that keeping his focus on the Lord was essential to seeing the hope of his people’s salvation that God had promised.
God calls us to “cease striving” (Psalm 46:10 NASB), so that we can know Him and understand the hope of His calling (Ephesians 1:18). He wants us to quietly hope and wait on God’s promises for strength (Isaiah 40:31), for endurance (1 Corinthians 10:13), for peace (Romans 15:13), for salvation (1 Thessalonians 5:8), for eternal life in heaven (Titus 1:2)—for others as well as for ourselves.
Lord, help me to be quiet before You today no matter what is going on around me. I look to the hope I have in Christ Jesus for all I need to do Your will today.
Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.—Proverb s 4:23 (ESV)
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.—1 Corinthians 10:31 (NIV)
And the Lord answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it.”—Habakkuk 2:2 (ESV)