Press the Truth Down Deep Into Your Heart Today

Press the Truth Down Deep into Your Heart Today

Posted on by Michele Morin

Sunday Scripture

The longer I live, the more dubious sounds the popular wisdom of couch pillows and coffee mugs advising me to “Listen to your heart.” When push comes to shove (as it invariably does), I’m learning the advice my heart dishes out is likely to lead me astray. Let me instead speak to my heart as the psalmist did, singing to his soul in the key of truth:

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
    and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
    my salvation and my God.

Psalm 42:11

Here, we see the writer interrogating his heart, reminding himself about God. Tim Keller writes about this practice, calling it “spiritual soliloquy,” riffing on the device used in plays in which a character speaks his thoughts aloud when alone.

In a recent article for The Atlantic, Keller shares openly about his diagnosis of pancreatic cancer and the debilitating fear that followed. He found that the necessary head work and heart work for a right response came from the words of Scripture. (No surprise there, right?) In Psalm 42:1, “the author is addressing neither God nor the reader, but his own soul, his self. His is not so much listening to his heart as talking to it… He is taking truths about God and pressing them down deep into his heart until they catch fire there.”

Take truth about God and press it down deep into your heart until it catches fire there!

Whatever you are facing today, I encourage you to engage your head and your heart, using Scripture as your guide. Press the truth down deep. Let it kindle a flame of obedience or courage or perseverance or unselfishness. Ask God to use that flame to provide both light and heat to see you through today’s challenge.

He is faithful.

Holding you in the light,


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Lean hard into the truth of Scripture. Then ask God to kindle in you a flame of obedience or courage or perseverance or unselfishness.

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Published by Michele Morin

Michele Morin is a Bible teacher, writer, reader, and gardener committed to the truth that women can become confident Christ-followers and students of God's Word. She has been married to an unreasonably patient husband for thirty-plus years, and together they have four sons, four daughters-in-love, and five adorable grandchildren. Michele loves hot tea and well-crafted sentences, poems that stop her in her tracks, and days at the ocean with the whole family. She laments biblical illiteracy and advocates for the prudent use of “little minutes.” She blogs at Living Our Days, and you can connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.

52 thoughts on “Press the Truth Down Deep into Your Heart Today”

  1. When I feel down, I always remember how David talked to his soul. It’s those psalms that remind me to do the same. Blessings!

    Like

  5. David Martyn-Lloyd Jones once said most of our trouble comes from listening to ourselves instead of talking to ourselves. We desperately need to take those unwieldy thoughts captive with God’s truth.

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  7. Oh, YES< Michele. "Listen to your heart" has long been a phrase that sounds like nails on a blackboard to me. Let's speak the truth to ourselves. Thank you for sharing the link to the article in the Atlantic. I will check it out.

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    1. I expect that your years as a teacher confirmed for you the emptiness of that particular advice. I hope you get time to read the article in the Atlantic. I am amazed that they published it!

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    1. I try to keep these Sunday posts brief, because I know a bit about the pace of life for my readers on Sundays.
      Thanks for making time in your busy day to read and to comment, Donna. You are a true encouragement and inspiration.

      Like

  11. Yes, our hearts can be so deceptive. I think it’s important to acknowledge what’s there but we also need to speak God’s truth to our hearts and remind ourselves of it.

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    1. Hey, that’s an important point of clarification, and I’m glad you made it. We should definitely be self-aware enough to acknowledge our feelings and not stuff them.
      Thank you, Lesley!
      I heard someone say once that we don’t through our feelings out of the car, but they don’t get to drive either!

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Yes, it’s going to be hard over the next decade or two to come to grips with the aging process in those we have become accustomed to looking to for leadership and wisdom.

      Like

  16. Ahhh, Michele. There’s so much wisdom in your post. I’m so thankful God’s given us His Word. Knowing His words so we can speak them to our hearts in troubled times is a saving grace during such times.

    I loved this word picture:
    “He is taking truths about God and pressing them down deep into his heart until they catch fire there.”

    Like

  17. One way I’ve been pressing the truth down in my heart is to copy out Bible verses with my own annotations in parenthesis. I discovered it makes it easier to dig into the meaning when I apply it to myself in the moment.

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  18. Such a great teaching for us! There is always things that another’s perspective can reveal to us!

    Your link at ‘My Corner of the World’ this week is a wonderful addition!

    Like

  23. Acting from the heart is crucial for sharing love around the world which is more important than ever in these difficult days of covid. Thanks for linking up with #MischiefAndMemories

    Like

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