Guard Your Heart ( August 15)

Guard your heart

You should not look down on your brother in the day of his misfortune, nor rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their destruction, nor boast so much in the day of their trouble."  Obadiah 1:12.   Sometimes the temptation is to rejoice over the misfortunes of others when we think that they deserve them, but God alone is the Righteous Judge who deserves to judge all.    After Abraham Lincoln was shot by an assassin, his wife Mrs. Lincoln overcome by grief fiercely demanded of his bodyguard, "Why were you not at the door to keep the assassin out?"  The bodyguard trembled explaining that he was distracted.  She fell back on her pillow, covered her face with her hands and said:  "Go now.  It's not you I can't forgive, it's the assassin."  The bodyguard replied concerning Abraham Lincoln, "If Pa had lived he would have forgiven the man who shot him.  Pa forgave everybody."    Solomon writes:  "Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice, or the Lord will see and disapprove and turn his wrath away from him."  Proverb 24:17,18.  Guard and preserve your heart with thoughts of love and not hate; thoughts of forgiveness and not vengeance; thoughts of peace and not strife, and thoughts of joy and not fear.  Let peace rule your heart and your meditation and you will have health in your bones and peace in your heart.   Kingdom Declaration: God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.   @Dr Pat Francis @Chayil$