{"id":21013,"date":"2014-08-01T00:20:23","date_gmt":"2014-08-01T04:20:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=21013"},"modified":"2014-07-31T21:39:08","modified_gmt":"2014-08-01T01:39:08","slug":"21013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2014\/08\/01\/21013\/","title":{"rendered":"The Condition of the Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SeekingHimLogo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My heart, O God, is steadfast,
\nmy heart is steadfast;
\nI will sing and make music.
\nAwake, my soul!
\nAwake, harp and lyre!
\nI will awaken the dawn.
\nI will praise You, Lord, among the nations;
\nI will sing of You among the peoples.
\nFor great is Your love, reaching to the heavens;
\nYour faithfulness reaches to the skies.
\nBe exalted, O God, above the heavens;
\nlet Your glory be over all the earth.
\nPsalms 57:7-11 NIV<\/p>\n

The first two lines of this week\u2019s passage struck me the hardest. It wasn\u2019t about what God was doing for me or about my enemies or the adversities I was facing. It was about me. It was about my heart<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

I looked at some other versions of this week\u2019s selection and saw other descriptions of the condition of our heart\u2014the word,\u00a0steadfast<\/em>. \u00a0Some of these other descriptions were\u201cfixed, ready, confident.\u201d Although they have different definitions they sum up well what we need to possess in order to be able to live out the rest of the passage.<\/p>\n

Steadfast<\/span>
\n\u2022 firmly fixed in place
\n\u2022 not subject to change
\n\u2022 firm in belief, determination, or adherence<\/p>\n

Now here in other versions, \u2018steadfast\u2019 is translated a little differently:
\nFixed<\/span> (KJV)
\n\u2022 placed or attached in a way that does not move easily
\nReady<\/span> (MSG)
\n\u2022 prepared mentally or physically for some experience or action
\n\u2022 prepared for immediate use
\n\u2022 willingly disposed
\n\u2022 likely to do something indicated
\n\u2022 displayed readily and spontaneously
\nConfident<\/span> (NLT)
\n\u2022 having a feeling, belief that you can do something well, succeed at something
\n\u2219 having confidence
\n\u2022 showing that you have confidence
\n\u2022 certain that something will happen or that something is true<\/p>\n

As with most instructions God gives us, along with the directives He places on our lives, there is one thing we need to make sure of\u2014 that our hearts are where they need to be. And that the condition of our hearts allows for the task to be completed. That is an example to others of the love of God and of His influence in our lives.<\/p>\n

\n

This week I want to focus on my heart.<\/p>\n

I want to focus on what it looks like…to God and to others.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

*<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0 \u2665 \u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u271e\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 *<\/span><\/p>\n

Dear Heavenly Father,
\nThe condition of our hearts may not be something we look at on a daily basis, it may be something that we take for granted. But Lord, this week I pray that we take a closer look. I pray that we take the steps needed to have our hearts be a reflection of You. I pray that we work towards becoming steadfast, fixed, ready, and confident. In Jesus\u2019 name I pray. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My heart, O God, is steadfast, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and make music. Awake, my soul! Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn. I will praise You, Lord, among the nations; I will sing of You among the peoples. For great is Your love, reaching to the heavens; Your faithfulness […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":13840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3020],"tags":[6942,3367,6941,1287,425,6943,3174,6940,6944,1075],"class_list":["post-21013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-devotions","tag-confident","tag-daily-devotions-2","tag-fixed","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-ready","tag-seeking-him-devotional","tag-steadfast","tag-taking-care-of-our-hearts","tag-tonya-ellison","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s39pHp-21013","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21013"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21016,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21013\/revisions\/21016"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}