So, what do you keep in your heart?  Do you know what it means to apply your heart to God’s instruction?  I have been trying, and failing more often than not, to do so.  I read the Word, put it in my heart and try to consistently apply it.  But then my husband says or does something that “pushes my buttons” and I react like an angry bear.  Sound familiar?  I am getting better, or at least sometimes, I am.  And each time I react poorly, I am sad because I know that is not the way God wants me to behave.  How many of us have the public face that we put on and the private way we actually act?  My goal is to be genuinely me all the time, but I’m not there yet.  I am working on putting more of God’s Word into my heart, so that is helping.  

This is my goal, and it should be the goal of all Christians everywhere.  I want to be filled with His joy.  I want to mature and live in harmony and peace with everyone.  I am working on that, too.  I don’t want to be that pushy Christian who is “all in the face” of those who don’t believe the way I do.  Paul never got into anyone’s face to convince them to repent.  He just shared the love of the Lord with them and that attracted others to him.  My prayer for myself and others is this verse.  I hope that we are all working on maturing, living in harmony and peace and letting God’s love and peace surround us.  

May the Lord bless and be with the people in North Carolina who are caught in the winds and rains of Hurricane Florence that is flooding there.  Send rescuers to them, Lord, and snatch them out of their desperation.  Thank you, Father, for your love for all of Your people and for Your Word that teaches us how to live and how to bring others to You.  In Jesus’s Name, I pray these things.  Amen.