Steady Heart

In honor of yesterday's 800th post on 

Writings on the Doorframe, 

I am offering free signed copies of my book: 

If you would like to be entered in the drawing, 

please email me at boosehome@aol.com
or leave me a comment below 

by the end of the day on Sunday, March 22nd.  

Winners will be announced on 

Monday, March 23, 2015!


"Surely the righteous will never be shaken;
they will be remembered forever.
They will have no fear of bad news;
their hearts are steadfast,
trusting in the LORD.
Their hearts are secure,
they will have no fear;
in the end they will look in triumph on their foes."
Psalm 112:6-8

What's the secret of a steadfast, firmly-grounded-in-the-Lord heart?  One that doesn't fear the unknown, what could be, or the threatening?  One that resists doubting no matter how impossible the situation, how weak the flesh, or how great the odds are against me?  What's the secret of a steady heart?  It's no secret, really.

Righteous.  There's a difference between being self-righteous and declared righteous.  The first is where I use my own standard, measuring myself using my own yardstick and ending up smelling like a rose.  The second is where I am deemed as right with God through faith in Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21).  Even though I fall short of God's perfect standard, I am measured according to the perfection of Christ and therefore my faith in Him as Lord and Savior places me in right standing with God despite my sin.

Since my identity in Christ is not based on my own merit, I know I am a well-loved daughter who is fully accepted and I can be assured of my eternal place in God's family.  Knowing that there is nothing I will go through in life, nothing that can be done to me or nothing that I can do that will shake my position or make God stop loving me makes a huge difference in the way I live my life (Romans 8:1-2, 8:38-39).  If God is for me in such an astounding way, then what does it matter what man does to me (Psalm 118:6)?  Or how much heartache I face?  Or how my enemy lures me into doubt and fear?  There is no match for my Father who has my heart so I, as His child, know that I am always loved and accepted.

The secret to a steady heart is to know I am declared righteous by faith and my right standing with God can never be shaken.

Trusting.  Trusting God means believing He has a plan in the midst of the chaos.  Believing God is sovereign is not about me trying to understand the mechanism by which He will save me but to only know that it is His mission to bring about my salvation.  My faith in the Lord is less about the odds of success and more about the enormous size of my God (Proverbs 3:5-6).

Therefore, when I place my full weight on God's faithful nature, my heart is firmly entrenched in His trustworthiness.  It's not so much that I believe I'm able to walk the path I'm called to walk, but that I know that my own weakness is not too big of an obstacle for God to overcome.  In other words, my trust in God is more about God's strength than in my weaknesses.  It's more about God's trustworthy nature than my unreliable one.  It's more about who God is than who I am.  And so, my trusting heart gives me confidence to step out in faith, to bet my life on God, which is really no gamble at all. 

The secret to a steady heart is to take a chance on the God who will never let me down.  

Triumphant.  I have an enemy who constantly tempts me to falter in my faith, who consistently tries to remind me of who I was before I met Christ and get me to believe I'm still that same wretched being, who is always at work attempting to lure me back into past sin, future strongholds and tempting distractions.  Even though the attacks of Satan and his minions are relentless, in Christ I am triumphant over them.  How so?  Because in Christ, I'm on the winning side!

And so I can say to my tempter, as Pastor John Piper suggested, "You're out of your mind.  Who wants to join forces with a loser?"  There truly is no weapon formed against me that can prevail because God is the glorious Victor (Isaiah 54:17).  And when I take up His sword and I place my allegiances in His camp, I join in the victory.  

This means my helplessness is only an illusion.  The reality is that in Christ I have the unlimited power of God on my side!  It means my hopelessness is only a misconception on my part.  In reality I have all the hope in the world through Christ!  It means my powerlessness against enormous odds is a deception of the enemy.  In reality I have the favor of a God with unlimited resources.

The secret to a steady heart is to remember I am on the winning side.

When do I despair, giving in to fear?  It's usually because I forget my firm standing in Christ, the unfathomable character of my God, and the triumph of God's mission here on earth.  When I remember these truths, I will have discovered the secret of a steady heart.

As I begin this day it is my prayer that I can keep focused on God's character instead of getting distracted by the problems that overwhelm.

When do I feel unworthy of His love?

How am I forgetting I am on the winning side and that my enemy is a loser?  He knows it, but he is testing me to see if I know it.