Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Colossians 3:13-14

1. Don’t ignore your hurt and pain.

2. Don’t suffer in silence and solitude. Find a safe, non-judgmental person to begin to open up to about what’s going in your heart.

Remember: time alone does not heal everything. Letting time pass and not dealing with the hurt may even lead to a root of bitterness growing in your heart.

3. Face your pain.

Don’t ignore it, don’t run from a hurt – face it … together with God.

4. Refuse to occupy your mind with worry and anxiety.

Worry rarely ever heals the pain in our hearts. It just makes it worse.

5. Don’t wallow in self-pity.

David discovered that resentment doesn’t work either. Resentment clouds our judgment and hampers our ability to see clearly through the pain.

Psalm 73:21-22 “When my thoughts were bitter and my feelings were hurt, I did not understand you.”

6. Refuse to give up!

Psalm 130:1-2 “From the depth of my despair, I call to you Lord. Hear my cry, Lord — listen to my call for help.”

Psalm 142 [2] I bring God all my complaints, I tell Him all my trouble. [3] When I’m ready to give up, He knows what I should do!

Heart blockages are anything that keeps us from living the life that God has for us. These heart blockages can often go undetected.

Psalm 109:22-23 “… my heart is wounded within me. I fade away like an evening shadow.”

Psalm 34:18, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”

The starting place to detect heart blockages is doing what David did in his prayer here in the Psalms:

Psalm 139 [23] Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. [24] Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

Ask yourself this question: What am I pretending not to know? What hurt am I simply trying to ignore?

1. Downshift your busy life.
Remember that we’re human beings – not human “doings.” We need to learn to receive love from God and others – not just give, give, give … and do, do, do. We need to figure out how to downshift some of the busyness in our lives.

2. Leave some space in your life for the God’s Spirit to work.
Ask God to live out His life through you as you go about your everyday life at work, home, etc.

3. Serve from a motive of love for God not out of duty.
Ask yourself, why I am serving people? Why am I doing this? A motive of love sets you free from developing a performance-based Christian experience where you’re constantly trying to gain approval from God and others based on how you serve.

Ask God to help you get to the point of having a motive of love when you serve. What is motivating me to do this? If you’re not enjoying your work or serving – step back and ask yourself — why? Maybe you’re not doing it out of love for God and for His purpose to be worked out in your life.

4. Be creative in using “spare” moments for prayer and spiritual reflection throughout the day. Use coffee breaks at work or play some uplifting spiritual music while driving to work in the morning.

5. Yield your mind right away to the spiritual nudges of God and know that your feelings will follow later.

This is the starting place to a healthy spiritual heart. Jesus was trying to teach the disciples in this story that faith means losing control. Following Jesus means giving up control. Faith in Jesus that will help us start off with a healthy heart means giving up control of our lives. Our lives are like the disciples’ situation on this boat. Our circumstances can overwhelm us far beyond our capacity to control them, even to the point of despair.

Maybe that’s you. Are you confused, discouraged – does the Christian life seem to work for others but not for you? If that’s you – there’s good news for you. Following Jesus and believing in him means that we need to surrender our attempts to control what we can’t control and ask God’s intervention. He’smore than capable to handle anything that comes our way.

In The Gospel of Mark 4:35-41, there’s a story that showed that the heart condition of the disciples. At this point in the ministry of Jesus, his followers were still getting used to him. He had been healing people and helping people in the area of Galilee which was in the north part of ancient Palestine. They had come to the sea of Galilee and they were crossing over to the other side to connect with more people. Winds coming off of the eastern desert combined with the low elevation of the Sea of Galilee can often lead to violent, sudden storms. This is a good sized body of water.

Picture yourself in this scene. In the early evening, while Jesus slept peacefully in the rear of the boat, some dark clouds suddenly appeared above them – lightning and thunder began to happen all around them. The wind was rattling the small boat – waves splashing all around – water pouring in over the sides … The disciples were grabbing Jesus by the shoulders – waking him up — said, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” They wanted him to help them bail out some of the water that was coming in. As Jesus began to get up, he did something that no ordinary sailor could ever do. He stood up in the rocking boat and spread his hands out – with a clear, strong voice – and he commanded the storm to stop. Instantly – the storm ceased and everything was calm again.

The disciples were stunned. They were scared. “Storms we understand. But, Jesus – we don’t understand.” He doesn’t fit in any of our nice little spiritual boxes. They may have been thinking – “Who is this guy?” Jesus blew up their idea of who they thought he was.

He challenged their lack of faith. The disciples just wanted someone to help bail out some of the water in the boat and work alongside of them. They had no idea that Jesus would do something beyond their wildest dreams like calming the storm. He actually took care of the whole situation in a much bigger way than just bailing out the boat with them. But, Jesus has a way of taking control of every life situation that he is invited into.

The real question then is what’s the condition of your spiritual heart? Your spiritual heart is what makes you, you! Your heart determines three things: why I say the things I do, why I feel the way I do and why I act the way I do. If my heart determines the way I think, the way I feel, and the way I act, then my spiritual heart is the internal life support system that God has placed in me — and also in you.

Spiritual heart disease is what happens when we live life our way and not God’s way. Spiritual heart disease is when we trust ourselves more that we trust God. How your spiritual heart this morning? What’s your heart condition?

1. Start with faith-prayer.

The two go hand-in-hand. Faith is the reliance that God wants to be personally active in my life. Prayer is the request for that activity to start happening. Faith is the expectation that God will do it.

2 Corinthians 5 [7] For we walk by faith, not by sight.

The Apostle Paul wrote those words to some friends of his 2,000 years ago. What he meant was – what we can see with our eyes will only take us so far. There is another dimension to life, a spiritual dimension. It’s filled with values and morals, and the Spirit of God. If we live based on what we can see only with our physical eyes, we’ll live a very shallow existence. But if we will live based on faith – based on what we believe, our values, convictions, and the power of God, then we’ll experience a much fuller life.

Hebrews 11 [6] Now without faith it is impossible to please God, for the one who draws near to Him must believe that He exists and rewards those who seek Him.

Ephesians 6 [18] With every prayer and request, pray at all times in the Spirit.

2. Choose to think the truth.

Philippians 4 [8] Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

God gives us promises or truths to help us deal with strongholds. Here are just a few:

Why should I fear when the Bible says that God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline? 2 Timothy 1:7

Why should I let the powers of darkness have supremacy over my life when the Bible says that the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world? 1 John 4:4

Why should I worry and be anxious when I can give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you? 1 Peter 5:7