When you are living from your new heart, you are living the authentic you! Once you learn to love from the heart that was engrafted into you when you gave your old heart to Christ, you experience a new freedom. The true self, the real you, is the person who is regularly experiencing more joy. The key word for such a life is authenticity.
When you are living out of hurt, you may discover aspects of your heart, but you will constantly but up against the false self. People who live out of their hurt, rather than their new heart, hurt themselves and others. The false self tells us that we are only acceptable if we achieve more, look better or act out a certain way. The key word for the false self is poser.
God longs to build wholehearted disciples. Wholehearted disciples are men and women who are learning and growing to genuinely live and love from their new heart. This is an uneasy journey, but it is possible. It’s possibilities lie in the intersection of God and family.
As one who has walked with and served God for over forty years, I will be completely candid and say that the only healing that results in true, authentic and wholehearted discipleship, happens in a loving community. This kind of heart work can’t be done in isolation.
In our church, we have this little phrase that packs powerful meaning—Bloodstained Allies. We believe that every person needs people in their lives that can call out the good within their hearts. Bloodstained Allies are people who care enough to watch our backs, but loving enough to confront our weaknesses. Learning to live from our new heart only happens in such a community.
On the journey,
Steve
Steve Holt M.A., D.D.
My newest book, Worshipper Warrior, can be found at www.steveholtonline.org
and www.amazon.com
