What do your feet say about your heart?
These are the feet of some beautiful girls with beautiful voices on their way to womanhood. I wonder where those lovely feet will take the young ladies they are carrying. It's a perfect question! Mary Kassian puts a magnifying glass on the way God answers the question "What do your feet say about your heart?" The wise father giving his son some critical advice about women in Proverbs 5 and 7 tells him to watch where a girls feet are taking her. In Proverbs 5:5-6 he says this is the kind of girl you need to run from ..."She does not ponder the path of life; Her ways are unstable, she does not know it." Let me give this to you straight up, a girl needs to know where she is going; she needs to think about where her feet are taking her. The link to the heart is that if she is led by her emotions and desires, she will not think about where her feet are taking her. Whatever feeling she has will be her guide. Now ladies, we all know that we girls have a lot of feelings and they are not always good.
Take Eve for instance, remember her desire to eat the forbidden fruit? She wanted that fruit! Like Eve girls who don't stop to think about where they are headed can ruin their lives. Here's a perfect example: in a feature for a girls, a pop magazine enchants girls to find some mysterious love on the beach this summer. "Cute" bikinis are captioned with advice on how to max your beauty so your eye-catching body will win you some love from a drop-dead gorgeous guy. What kind of path is this? It all seems innocent enough. BUT it's not so innocent.
The Beach Retreat
Insert heart-checkup here! Watch this! Claire is active in the youth group and headed for the beach for a retreat. She packs her Bible and plans her cutest wardrobe combos around each of the days. She likes the idea of the spiritual retreat because it has been a dry time in her heart. And the truth is she is really excited about being with the guys on the retreat and maybe getting into a relationship for the summer. The retreat finally happens and it is fabulous, she catches Brad's eye at the first meeting and they start sitting together. Before long the retreat is about Brad and not about her relationship with Jesus. Claire never intended not to put Jesus first, but she missed HIM and she may not even know it. Why? She did not set out to seek Him first and let Him guide her life. Where is her mind and heart? Is she thinking about what needs to be first? Jesus is who she needs the most; only He can satisfy the longings of her feminine heart and guide her in relationships. But she gave Jesus a seat along side of her desires thinking she could work with both. She had not made the critical decision to give her heart wholly to Him. He fills anxious, tender hearts with His love and cleans away the dirt of sin when a young woman gives her heart to Him. He surrendered His life on the cross to pay for every sin and clear the path to real love. Cry out to Him, search for Him, passionately desire to love Him with all your heart! Fight everything that distracts you from His love! He alone is the Shepherd and Guardian of your soul. No one will ever care for you like Jesus!
Designer Insights
Mary lists these verses to show us what God says about a real relationship with Him.
Read Deuteronomy 11:1 God commands His children to do two things here; what are they?
John 14:15 What is a test for true love for Jesus in this verse?
1 John 2:6 Walking is the metaphor God uses to help us see that our lives are moving in a direction. If we expect to know/ experience a relationship with God, what does this verse say we need?
Proverbs 14:16 (NIV) A wise man is cautious and turns away from evil, but a fool is arrogant and careless.
A wise woman makes a decision about the direction of her heart and feet, a wild woman just follows the world into deception. God will teach the wise steps in His word, but don't forget the most important thing is that He deeply loves you and wants to hold your hand and lead you on the path of all that is good.
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