Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life

(Prov. 4:23, NIV).

God’s Word admonishes us, above all else, to guard our hearts. Why? Because the heart—whether of an individual or of a nation—is “the wellspring of life.” Life flows from a heart that is tender toward God and others; it ceases to flow when the heart is hardened and cares only for self. When we allow ourselves to take what seems to be the easy way, to “go with the flow” and spend our short time here on earth serving only ourselves, our hearts will continue to grow harder and more self-absorbed—and the results cannot be good.

God laid it out about as clear as it can get when He said, “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life…” (Deut. 30:19, emphasis added). And that’s what God’s higher purpose for all of us, regardless of vocation/avocation, is about, and especially so for those of us who have been called as writers, speakers, preachers, or teachers to communicate God’s Word to others. It is a call to God’s people to respond to His higher purpose for our lives, which is to guard our hearts against becoming hard and self-centered, to refuse to get caught up in the “me-first” culture of our day, to adopt the selfless cry of John the Baptist: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30)—and to heed the very words of God Himself: “Choose life!” For if we, as believers in and followers of Jesus Christ, do not choose to take a stand for life—real life, selfless life, eternal life—instead of death, then there is no one left to stem the tide of curses that has already begun to sweep across our beloved country.

The collective heart of a nation reflects the individual hearts of its citizens. This is true, whether the nation is America, Israel, Canada, Germany, France, Iran, Nigeria, El Salvador, or North Korea. It is also true that the Bible describes the heart, prior to repentance and regeneration by God, as “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jer. 17:9). How then, can we expect those whose hearts are still in that deceitful, desperately wicked state to choose life and blessing, rather than death and cursing?

It is therefore up to us, those who have been born again by the very Spirit of God and given a heart of flesh to replace the “stony heart” described in Ezekiel 11:19, to respond to God’s higher calling and purpose of choosing life over death—and to set the standard by modeling it to those who may very well hate and persecute us for doing so.

No easy task—and no small one—but necessary nonetheless. More than that, it is a costly calling. Choosing to take a stand for life in the face of a culture of death may very well cost us everything. And yet it is the very reason we are here on this earth today. It’s not about royalties or ratings or best-seller lists; it’s about maintaining tender and responsive hearts toward God. Regardless of our station or position in life, our geographic location, our age, gender, talents or abilities, we are here for one purpose: To answer God’s higher call to live beyond ourselves and to model a you-first life in a me-first world.

Hearts of flesh that are tender toward God and toward others are the very wellsprings of the life and blessing so desperately needed by a hard-hearted world that walks in darkness under the curse of death—a world of which we were once a part, and for which our beloved Savior died.

***Adapted from my Summer 2008 release from New Hope Publishers, BEYOND ME: Living a You-First Life in a Me-First World, © Kathi Macias 2008. (Permission granted to reprint without change and with proper author/copyright attribution.)

Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord!

Let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).

            In addition to waiting for my next two books to make their way through the production process to actual publication, I am currently working on another contracted book titled Mothers of the Bible Speak to Mothers Today. I spent much of the last couple of days researching Mary of Nazareth, the mother of Jesus, and I have been so inspired and challenged as a result of that study.

            Many of us who consider ourselves “non-Catholics” have a tendency to downplay the importance of this incredible woman’s life. Granted, we want to avoid the non-biblical worship of Mary or anyone else other than the Savior Himself, but in a knee-jerk reaction to this biblically forbidden worship we sometimes miss the amazing truths of Mary’s life.

            The very fact of her probable age is stunning. Though we have no exact age given in the Scriptures, some say she was as young as thirteen, while most place her in the fifteen to seventeen-year age bracket. That’s not many years on this earth to suddenly be thrust into the responsibility of raising a child—and not just any child, but the very Son of God in human form. In addition, Mary finds out about this imminent honor and position through the appearance of an angel. That in itself would leave most of us on the floor, gasping for breath. Add to that the fact that this young virgin was betrothed to be married and could be stoned to death for what would appear to be immoral behavior when her pregnancy became apparent, and Mary must have been reeling with the implications.

            But what did she do? Did she run away, reject the assignment, beg for the angel to go back to God and ask Him to find someone else? No, she didn’t. And that’s where the quality of her character shone through. She didn’t find her strength to accept this mind-boggling responsibility in herself, but rather in the God of Israel, whom she had been raised up to trust and believe in from her earliest days.

            “Behold the maidservant of the Lord,” she said. “Let it be to me according to your word.” Her response was that she was God’s servant, and whatever He called her to do, she would trust Him to accomplish in and through her. Is there any other message the world more desperately needs to see modeled in our own lives? Is there anything we can write or preach to the lost and dying that will mean more to them than to see us model our humble obedience to God, according to His Word and His call on our lives? When we as writers or preachers or teachers—or, in whatever capacity, servants of and believers in the Most High God—submit and commit ourselves to live that message, then the words we speak or write will more effectively impact our listeners. And we, as the humble, God-centered Jewish maiden named Mary, will fulfill our destiny and bring God’s eternal life to a lost and dying world.