“My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Psalm 73:26 (NIV)

Trust your heart.

That’s the advice we often receive, whether falling in love or making a weighty decision. It’s what people say when we’re struggling with a big emotion.

The problem with that advice is that our hearts aren’t always trustworthy.

• My heart may respond to short-term emotion and fail to weigh the long-term impact.
• My heart may give me permission to do what I want, but fail to consider the hearts of those around me.
• My heart might even lie to me to get what it wants.

Not too long ago, I was discouraged. It started when we received unexpected news that was hard and hurtful. I’m naturally optimistic, but this was challenging. I couldn’t fix it. I couldn’t make it better.

Days passed, and discouragement pecked at me. These were the messages resounding in my heart:

You have a reason to be discouraged, so just go with it.

There’s no way this will get better.

This is too hard even for God.

In today’s key verse, the psalmist Asaph recognizes he is both weak and strong. In his own power, he is a mess. Yet he’s not alone. He’s united to a powerful God and all the goodness this relationship brings to him.

"My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:26).

Yes, I was in a battle of discouragement, but my heart and my being aren’t tied to circumstances or emotions alone.

As a believer, my heart is attached to my relationship with an omnipresent, all-knowing, all-powerful Heavenly Father.

That means my heart is attached to truth, wisdom, strength, healing and so much more. It demands that the messages filtering through my heart must first pass through my faith.

It was OK for me to acknowledge my heart might not be trustworthy at the moment.

That isn’t weak. That’s strong.

It’s confessing we need more than emotion to fuel our well-being or direct our path. It’s saying we choose a stronger foundation than a temporary emotion or a temporary situation.

Trust your heart.

No. Not right now.

However, we can trust that God is aware of unexpected news. We can trust He is present. We can trust that God redeems what is lost or broken. We can trust He will never forsake us nor abandon us.

As we do so, we trust in God with all our heart, our soul, our being.

When we place our trust in Him rather than our fickle hearts, He anchors it. Trust doesn’t fix a momentary circumstance, but it grounds us to an eternal, unmovable source of strength.

Heavenly Father, I hold up my heart to You. I don’t want it to rule me. It does not have permission to lead me away from Your best. As I place my trust in You, my heart will follow. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

TRUTH FOR TODAY

Psalm 31:24, “Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD.” (NIV)

Ezekiel 36:26a, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you.” (NIV)

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REFLECT AND RESPOND

Sometimes it’s hard to trust God with our heart because it’s been hurt by another person. Psalm 147:3 reminds us God heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. Find an alone place with God. Invite Him to bind those wounds. Let Him mend and strengthen your heart.

We’d love to hear your thoughts from today’s devotion! Let us know in the comments.

© 2018 by Suzie Eller. All rights reserved.