What Is the Natural Beat of Your Heart?

This is late! I tried to auto post it on Thursday. Apparently, I need more practice doing that. Here ya go!

In Job, Satan was roaming back and forth on the earth looking for someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8 says “Be alert and sober minded because your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion.” Interesting that Satan gives his position away by roaring…if we listen. If we are sober minded and alert, we can decide to resist him in many situations because we have choice and free will. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, "No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so you can endure it." God may not take away pain or bad situations, but he gives us a choice: Depend on Him and endure it or choose independence from God and handle it yourself (which is failure even if you succeed because not depending on God is failure). God doesn't force us to do anything. He wants us to choose Him. He did not force Job to choose him, but Job did it no matter his situation. Could you stand in God's love if you were hit with what Job was hit with?

No person is safe from trials. Why? When you read Job, you figure out that God shows his power in trials. I also think God wants to know where our heart is. I saw a sign that said, “If you want to know where your heart is, look where your mind goes when it wanders.” For this generation the sign could say, "If you want to know where your heart is, look and see what you posted on Social Media."  What do you dwell on? The situation or enduring the situation with God? Whether bad situations come from Satan or our bad choices or just life situations in general (or all three), there are tons of verses that talks about your heart attitude in trials. What is in your heart manifests itself on the outside. Luke 6:45 says, “From the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.” Romans 10:10 says, “It is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth you confess and are saved.” Your heart, your actions and your words are all connected. You cannot easily divide one from the other. Some may be able to deceive, but the heart will show through the facade soon enough. 

In Job, God chooses who Satan can test. God does not choose a weak, stubborn or unrighteous heart.God chose Job, a strong, righteous man who loved the Lord with all his heart and was considered blameless, shunning evil (Job 1:1). Job could have chosen to curse God and die, but he chose to stand with God and be restored. I have to believe that after his testing and restoration, he spoke more passionately about God’s goodness and mercy. 

How do you choose to deal with your trials? Trust that God will get you through them or bitterness that you were sent a trial in the first place. I don’t think we ever know how we will act until the trial actually hits, but we can prepare our hearts for trials, we can prepare our minds for struggles and we can practice what flows out of our hearts every day in the little stuff. Hopefully, when the big stuff hits us, we can continue to depend on the Lord because it is the natural beat of our heart.

What is the natural beat of your heart?