Listen to Your Heart

“You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace.” Isaiah 55:12 NIV

“Never rush ahead of joy; never push past peace.”

My thoughts today are, “listen to your heart.”

Ever feel an unexplainable sense of uneasiness about a decision you were about to make, or a direction you were about to pursue? Did you stop to ask God for wisdom? Consider other options? Or maybe you rushed ahead with even more determination. How did that work out for you? You need to pause where you are and in what you are doing, listening for God in those moments; you will save yourself a lot of regrets.

“Act in haste; repent in leisure!” I have no idea who first said that, but it’s still a pretty accurate prediction. Even if and when they know better, it seems that a person’s human nature is inclined to be always in a hurry to do what they want, yet slow to obey what they know God is saying. If you do not learn to process your impulses in a wise and Godly manner, especially the ones that are persistent and insistent, you are living on the edge of inevitable regret. Your mortal enemies – the world, your flesh, and the devil – push; God leads!

By experience, I have learned that often the thing I most wanted to do – right then – was not necessarily the best thing to do. And if it was the right thing, it will still be the right thing to do. When you feel too great a push, you may be rushing past the warnings that God placed there.

There are times I was thankful I didn’t mail the letter I rushed to write. I remember when I said what I felt like saying and regretted it badly, and when I did not voice what I felt like saying, and was grateful. Current technology can be dangerous when you have an unchecked impulse. The immediacy of email and Facebook can be an enemy of friendships and an embarrassment to good manners. I keep an unsent message in my email “Drafts” to remind me that it and others were best not sent. (I have since removed the email address so it could not be sent accidentally!)

Learn to listen to God in your heart; give Him a pure heart that desires to do only His will. Make sure that God rules in your heart. See Psalm 139:23 NLT/19:14 NKJV.  That inner voice is likely then to be God protecting you from an error of judgment or timing. Be warned; your heart without Jesus as Lord can mislead you. See Jeremiah 17:9-10 NKJV. If you lack joy or peace your heart is misleading you. “The Lord says, ‘I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you. Do not be like a senseless horse or mule that needs a bit and bridle to keep it under control.’” Psalm 32:8-9 NLT.

God promises, “You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace.” Isaiah 55:12 NIV. Never rush ahead of joy; never push past peace. Joy marks the path where God leads. Peace accompanies the journey where God directs. “And the peace of god, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:7 NIV. I want to always walk with joy and hold God’s peace in my heart and mind.

My prayer for you today is: be more sensitive to God’s voice than your own or others’.