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What’s in your heart?

It’s a scary question to answer, especially when you hope to please the Lord. You hope that your heart is doing better than it was the day before.

Paul was awaiting execution. Death. The end to his mission. And yet, he took time to write a second letter to Timothy.

I wonder what was in Paul’s heart. What aching he felt? What had his senses on alert? Or was it all a stirring of the Holy Spirit to support another (and us in the future) in growing as a believer?

Paul wrote a letter of exhortation to Timothy, about being bold, having endurance, and being faithful in the face of false teaching. He wrote of having sound doctrine and guarding what they (his grandmother, mother, and Paul) deposited into him.

So what’s in your heart?

Is it anything, like the information I found on barna.com:

Older Generations Are More Likely to Identify with & Practice Christianity
Reporting on a three-year average, FaithView shows us that:

• Elders are the most likely generation of U.S. adults to self-identify as Christian (83%)
• Boomers are close behind at eight in 10 (80%)
• Gen X (73%)
• Millennials, with just shy of two-thirds claiming Christianity (64%)
• Practicing Christians (defined by Barna as self-identified Christians who attend church every month and say their faith is very important in their lives). Found four in 10 Elders (37%) practice their faith in this way, Boomers (30%) to Gen X (26%) and Millennials (22%)
• We see an overall 9 percent difference between Christian Elders (66%) who strongly agree that their religious faith is very important in their life and Millennials (57%) who say the same
• Barna has seen early signs that a decline in affiliation is extending to teens in this next generation, who are more likely than older adults to identify as atheists

 Hurts your heart, doesn’t it?

A war has begun and we need everyone on the battlefield. Suited up, prayed up, faith resting in the promises of God, eyes fixed on Jesus, hearts determined to endure to the end of fulfilling the mission, and standing boldly as Followers of Jesus Christ.

• No time for slackers
• No time for sin
• No time for double-minded believers
• No time for bickering over who is worthy or vanity
• No time for division
• No time …

It is a time for… “such a time as this” for Joshua’s too boldly and courageously lead, forward. For the Elijah’s stepping forward, out of the crowds of timid and lukewarm believers to pray humbly to Jehovah on behave of them. For Esther’s going before kings and evildoers, confidently in the name of Christ Jesus seeking favor towards believers. It’s time for Ruth’s, to leave their comfort zones and follow in-step with true believers to a place that is unknown where the rewards are greater than the fears.

It’s time for you to do what God’s called you to do. It’s time to reclaim what’s ours, instead of accepting the world’s standards.

What’s in your heart?

• Fear, frozen, panic-stricken?
• Lack of confidence, anxious, self-conscious?
• Confusion, hesitant, doubt?
• Depression, melancholy, despondency?
• Still rehashing the negative, expecting the worst, feeling defeated before you do anything?
• Trying to convince God that He has the wrong person, again?

What you don’t see, God sees. Remember, He made you. He designed you to be the opportunity (a living sacrifice) to participate in His bringing about an increase in other’s lives and yours. 

God’s calling you out. Your heart is unsettled, sweat on your brow, heart beating unsteadily, breathing is off and your entire body is now at attention. A struggle pursues between the old nature and the new nature. Depending on which one you feed daily, will depend on which way you will lean. Hopefully, you have been meditating on God’s word regularly and diligently studying it and praying. Now is the time where the rubber meets the road … time for “motion”.

• Take a deep breath
• It’s time
• Step forward
• Then get ta-steppin’ (moving)
• Share the Gospel, like only you can. Your way will look daunting, but with Jesus as the treasure in your heart, “Victory Is Yours and Ours”!

 What’s in your heart? 

The boldness and courage to do what God’s called you to do, to advance the Kingdom of God. Now that’s always in a believers heart.

Get up! Go!

Shalom.

 Share in the comments below so I and others can cheer you on. Take this blog one step further, by clicking on Hanging Out With Jesus Podcast for a discussion on Accountability Partners. It’s about the people or person who cheers you on regularly and how you can be an effective believer in cheering another person into the place that God’s called them to go.