Keep the Heart

Have you ever watching something that left you feeling anxious, fearful, or distressed? That was the intended reaction. It is easier to influence people when they are fearful. Making people anxious by feeding them constant bad news often enslaves a viewer to stay tuned. Oddly, this is the very kind of habit that can hurt us.

We are seeing pandemic levels of anxiety and fear. Since these are basically inseparable, it’s not surprising to see a rise in both. The question is this: Why has there been such a dramatic increase?

We can’t blame everything on the pandemic, even though it contributed to historic levels of anguish and distress. But sometimes there are additional causes for a constant sense of doom and darkness, inflicted by unlikely suspects. We are the unlikely suspects.

We can’t control what the media is serving, but we can manage how many of their meals we’ll choose to eat. As we continue to be bombarded with a stream of negative news, we need to develop our own systems to balance the input. Are you overdosing on bad news? Let’s look at three common symptoms, and then we’ll consider some suggestions for repairing the damage.

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BONUS BIBLE SERIES: Welcome to Proverbs chapter 20 on Build Your Bible Habit. This chapter reminds me of going into a superstore and picking up everything you need in one trip. So many topics are covered, from the meddling fool to the person who can’t keep private matters private. Each verse moves to another issue of life. Since so many areas are covered in this chapter, it’s reasonable to say that whatever you’re walking through will probably be addressed.

How many times have you come to a place in your life where you were facing a situation and didn’t know how to handle it? The Proverbs are designed precisely for these situations. God instructs us line by line, leading us into wise and gracious handling of even the most complicated matters. It calms our souls when we’re led by God in what to do next. The anxiety and agitation are replaced with a confidence not in our own wisdom, but in the wisdom from God’s Word.

Proverbs 20:18 is a great reminder verse for those times when we may need extra guidance in our lives. It says this: "Every purpose is established by counsel: and with good advice make war." (Proverbs 20:18) It’s never a shame to need counsel. If you’re facing something right now and you don’t know what to do, ask a trusted counselor for some good advice. It’s wise and it’s biblical.

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Welcome to Teachback Tuesday, where we air the most popular episodes from the previous season. This week, we’re replaying an episode that created a lot of chatter. The popular phrase, “Follow your heart” is contrary advice, but it's thrown around like an old family recipe. If you’ve ever followed your heart and gotten burned, you know firsthand that this is inaccurate advice.

God is our guide, but when we ignore His clear principles and go with the demands of our desires, we end up in situations that cause anxiety, pain, and even despair. What is your true life purpose? Are you just here to feel good and jump from experience to experience until you’re old and worn out from a life that has left you emotionally and physically bankrupt?

This Teachback Tuesday episode will provide four reasons why following our hearts is misguided. Share this episode with loved ones, especially those who look like they're heading for a cliff with their eyes wide open. 

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BONUS BIBLE SERIES: Welcome to Proverbs chapter 19 on Build Your Bible Habit. The theme of upright living is woven throughout this chapter, giving us principles to put into practice right away. If you haven’t started doing so, I suggest that you pray before listening to these Proverbs. Ask the Lord to show you what to work on from the chapter, and then watch for pop quizzes throughout your day. Remember, sometimes people are the "tests" in life.

You will find yourself applying the Bible more to your everyday living as you continue to build your Bible habit. Verses will pop up on the screen of your mind, prompting you to pause and edit yourself, putting you in a position to have better outcomes in your relationships.

Proverbs 19:11 is a perfect example of this, as it reminds us of this key relationship principle: "The discretion of a man deferreth his anger; and it is his glory to pass over a transgression." The next time someone does or says something that provokes you and you’re tempted to have a short fuse, pause and P.O.A.T.: Pass over a transgression. We love it when people do that for us.

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We live in the age of label-slapping. It’s common and very public, since we can now call people out on social media to let the whole world know how we feel. Things that are common are not always correct. Is it right to get the branding iron out to mark someone else when we hate having that done to us? Just because the culture loves creating and applying negative labels to people with whom they disagree doesn’t mean that this is a good practice. Are we becoming toxic ourselves?

By definition, something that is “toxic” means it’s “poisonous,” and was previously used only when referring to hazardous substances and dangerous chemicals. I get it that we’re trying to say that certain people and situations can be hazardous, but are we liberally using an overused word just because it’s the latest slang term for “someone or someplace that we don’t like”?

Is it possible that we’re confusing the word toxic with something else? This is just a brief examination, which I hope will cause us to carefully consider if we’re becoming too label-slap-happy.

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BONUS BIBLE SERIES: Welcome to Proverbs chapter 18 on Build Your Bible Habit. Chapter 18 takes us deeper into the issues of life, with an extra emphasis on behaviors of what the Bible calls “the fool,” along with instructions about how we use our words. The book of Proverbs is written on a level where we can take the learning to applying.” 

By the time you get to the end of chapter 18, you’ve received a month’s worth of instructions for daily living in under five minutes. It’s not enough for us to simply read or listen to the Proverbs. Bible knowledge without Bible application is treating the Bible like an academic subject rather than the Words of life. God really wants to help us know how to live, but we need to read AND follow His directions.

Here’s our reminder verse for the day from Proverbs 18:12: "Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honour is humility." There’s always more to learn, and that makes us permanent students of the Bible.

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Welcome to Teachback Tuesday, where we feature the most popular episodes from the previous season. In the intro, I shared the story of what happened when I ran into a group of attendees at an airport after a conference. These ladies were discussing things that had encouraged their hearts and we were enjoying our conversation.

Suddenly, one woman in the group went off-topic with this comment: “You should get your eyebrows done.” After a conference filled with Bible application lessons, that was her takeaway? And you know what I did when I got to a mirror: checked my eyebrows and added that to my personal list of image issues.

When this episode first aired, it was downloaded so frequently that we knew we had hit a raw nerve. Image issues are common potholes that roll many of us into the ditch. God can help us with our image issues, and even better than that, He can help us to see ourselves the way He sees us. This brief episode will give you some vital suggestions, like a starter list. You and God will take it from there.

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BONUS BIBLE SERIES: Welcome to Proverbs chapter 17 on Build Your Bible Habit. There are plenty of relationship instructions woven into this chapter. Verse nine reminds us not to go around telling others how someone else hurt us, while verse 14 clearly states that conflicts always have a telltale beginning, signaling us to avoid making matters worse. This chapter is like a combination of recipes and roadmaps. 

You are in the process of developing a valuable life habit. Daily Bible reading leads to increased Bible study by design. God draws us deeper into His Word and before we know it, our relationship with God has grown and become so much more real. Personal relationships are bound to grow when we’re spending more time together. Time in God’s Word is the same as time spent with God, because He is the Word. Our reminder verse for this week is found in Proverbs 17:1, which says this: "Better is a dry morsel, and quietness therewith, than an house full of sacrifices with strife." This is God’s way of reminding us that if we have quiet and peaceable lives, we are wealthier than we think.

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Welcome to Soundbites: Topics that are scripturally sound in bite-sized episodes. This week's topic: Anger. Are you angry with someone right now? The strong emotions and reactions that come with anger can get us into trouble. Being angry is not a sin by itself, but the way we express that anger can easily become sinful and harmful.

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BONUS MOTHER'S DAY EPISODE: God gave this obvious motherhood instruction: love your children. Why did God have to tell us to do something that should have been automatic? Is it possible that we would have missed the obvious in the midst of a culture that is so focused on image and outcomes that it forgets about people? Or is it more personal? Do we love our children fully, or only when we're pleased with them.

This bonus episode is a brief glimpse at the instruction in Titus 2:4: "That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children..." (emphasis added). Clearly, God saw a need to put this instruction in Scripture for reasons unknown, but we can guess that in part, He knew that we'd need to be reminded! Consider this a five-minute Mother's Day card, given with love from a sister friend in the motherhood journey right along with you. 

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