Welcome to God Today. My name is Amy Robbins with Pure Life Counseling, and today I want to talk about the importance of checking your heart. Proverbs 15:13 says, “A cheerful heart puts a smile on your face, but a broken heart leads to depression.” What you don’t process, you end up projecting. What that means is you must take the time to steward your emotional health as much as your spiritual health. You are only as spiritually strong as you are emotionally healthy. Friends, your emotional health directly affects your spiritual strength. Too often, we neglect one, not realizing how greatly it influences the other. If you allow your heart to go unattended, you will find yourself leaning on feelings, and negative emotions can actually drive your life, which would hurt your spirit. This is a dangerous choice and can cause great unnecessary pain, not just to you, but to others around you.
Sadly, where discernment is lacking, people often lean on their feelings to be interpreters of what is happening in a given situation. Emotions are excellent indicators of what might need a little extra tending to, but they are insufficient leaders. Never, ever, ever, never, ever, ever, ever make a big decision in the midst of great emotion. This is some advice that I give couples in counseling, and it’s so important. It’s a guideline to follow and it saves many couples from making detrimental, emotional decisions. We don’t want to make emotional decisions that get into ending a family dynamic. We don’t want that. Our feelings can validate even bad decisions in a moment of great emotion. So one of the best habits I’ve implemented in my own life is to do an intentional check on my own heart. You can do it when you wake up, you can do it later in the day. Whatever time is best for you. If you feel a lot of intense emotions coming on, take a minute and do this. First thing to do is ask yourself a couple of questions: How’s my heart? What needs tending to today? And third one: What’s my capacity in a given area? Because these three things change all the time.
So then spend a little time, if even just a few minutes, looking to the Father to fill that need, speak His truth and reset any area, needing adjustment in our own lives. It is not selfish to invest in our emotional health, quite the opposite. It is necessary. What a gift to the world around us and especially those within our sphere of influence that we pay attention to our own heart. I’m talking to the strong ones today. You who are pastors, missionaries, you that own businesses, influential leaders, spouses, parents. You don’t always have to be the strong one. You are not meant to do it alone. No one should. You don’t always have to have the right words or even the answer to every crisis. Your home, children, and life don’t have to be in perfect order. Thank the Lord. You are human, too and worthy of someone to be strong for you. Do not suffer in silence. Reach out, get help. The mark of a strong person is one who has the greatest support.
So here’s some steps to take. Check your heart often, get biblical counseling to acquire tools for your breakthrough, and steward your healing journey. Okay, let me pray for you. God, I thank You for everyone who is listening today. I pray that You bless them and all that they are doing, that You remind them that they are not alone, that You are with them. And there are others there to support when they reach out. God, I pray for blessing over their minds, over their spirit and over their body. That you give them the ability to know that they are worthy of the support, that they don’t always have to be the strong one. And that You are there for them. Thank you, Jesus. We look to You first and I thank you, God, that you are always with us. You never leave us. You never forsake us. In Your Name I pray, Amen.