Directions For the Heart

Last week we talked about being in a stretchy place, a place of being stretched. If you missed it, just click HERE to be sure to get your two free printables!  For this week, I wanted to share another encouragement and a challenge — Something that caused me to take a closer look at the SIZE of my HEART.

The following is what I am calling, well, determining to name, a Psalm 119 Inspiration.  For those of you that are multi-tasking at this moment, and just want to listen instead of read, click here LISTEN INSTEAD.  Otherwise, feel free to keep reading!   *Be sure to come back later and get your pdf freebie at the bottom of the post when done!

“I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart“

Psalm 119:32 ESV

As I read the verse above, one of the first things that caught my attention was running towards commandments – I mean, isn’t it hard to run towards commandments (rules) and statutes? The other thing was that the Psalmist said (WHEN you enlarge my heart). Now at first I thought, why is this person demanding God to enlarge his heart before he will follow or run towards the Father’s commands?  Oh, the thoughts of the mere human mind, but as I was praying, the Holy Spirit began to impress upon my spirit to take a closer look at this one verse (yes, I read the other ones as well) but for this specific time, for the sake of not writing a book about the Psalms in this email, I am just touching on what I felt the Lord saying about this verse— in application to the things happening in my life (and probably in many of your) lives right now. The Holy Spirit kept bringing me back to this particular verse and I knew I needed to think on it further, so I did.

I thought about word run, as in we need to R-U-N, not walk or slowly canter, but run to the rules God has set before us. To embrace the Father’s instructions and hold them as a treasure in our hearts! Many of us demand answers from God without getting our heart right and walking obediently to what He is asking of us in the first place. We might ask, “What is the next step Lord…?” only to let that very question become so consuming that we start to demand instead of ask. We sometimes look in at self and what we consider need(s), and before ever thinking about His instruction for our next step, we attempt to get feedback on this need, that in the end, may not be what He wanted us to be focusing on in the first place.

Are we willing to listen to His instruction, to the answer He may have for us even if it does not match our version of the answer we desire?  I mean, do we RUN to love Him or do we run to question Him? After we have answers, do we then suddenly have so much more praise to give? Do we seek out His instruction or use our own logic or rational to figure out how we ought to live?  It is easy to get into the trap of thinking that every time we go before the King we need to get answers, when all He wants us to do sometimes is enjoy Him, worship Him, delight in Him. We need to ask ourselves, are we running to Him for Him or are we running to our own agenda for our lives?

Heart check.

Back to the “enlarge my heart” part. I suddenly saw it in yet another perspective. I saw that the Psalmist pleading for God to enlarge his heart so that he is able (capable) to run into the instruction of the Lord. I thought about the word enlarge, and it does not only speak of increasing in size, it can also mean to be stretched in the sense of being developed. There is that stretchiness again, it seems to be a very important factor in our growth, wouldn’t you say? I mean, we seem to grow the most in those stretchy, middle places.

And part of running into God’s commands, is loving Him with all our heart, soul, strength— our whole self.  And when we do this, not only will we want to follow the instructions He gives us, but it also develops our heart in a way that truly desires to follow His commands— no matter what…

Check out this free printable that can help as you move forward, and run towards Jesus. It is called Directions For the Heart: Running Into God’s Commands. I hope it will both challenge and encourage you!

“The law of the Lord is perfect. reviving the soul…”

Psalm 19:7 ESV