The Crevices Of Your Heart | Daily Devotional 1638

You're listening to My Morning Devotional Podcast, episode 1638. Today's Devo is called The Crevices of Your Heart.

Hey there, we're the Alessis, a ministry family working together in our church in Miami, Florida. And if you're like us, when days get busy, the to-do lists get longer, it can be hard to find devotional time. That's why every weekday we share a five-minute daily dose of heaven. This is the My Morning Devotional Podcast.

Good morning, everybody, and happy Wednesday. Stephanie here, and we are continuing in our devos about Philippians 2. Today I'm just going to share with you more of a personal story, and I might ramble a little bit, so stay with me. My pregnancy postpartum brain is still a little foggy, but it's like we're having coffee together in the morning, and I'm sharing with you a good story about myself. So let's dive into it. Philippians 2, 12 through 13. Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. I love that verse. Let me say it one more time. Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. This is a mouthful. So let me break it down. And I want to break it down because this is something that I have really put into practice this past year for myself. So first, let me let me back it up and share with you my story. I turned 30 this year, and I'm very happy to be 30. I love being 30. It is so much fun. But I will say, and I will admit, that it took a little bit of work to get my mind in a good place. I got married when I was 25. I got pregnant very quickly after that, and I got pregnant very quickly after that. So I had two under two, and in the back half of my 20s, it was just all about marriage and babies. And if you are, if you have done that yourself, where you have gotten married quickly and you've had children quickly, you understand that you go through a massive 180 mentally and physically and emotionally. Who you were before that is not who you were at the end of it. And sometimes it could even feel like you lost a bit of yourself to the whole process. Now, don't get me wrong, having children and getting married is the greatest blessing in your life. It is just, I am so grateful that God allowed me to be married and to have these children. But it comes at a huge cost and you're exhausted and you are giving up every part of yourself to keep your family happy, to serve your children, to serve your spouse. And there could be days where you mentally are not okay, where emotionally you are not okay. And you've put out so much that you have forgotten to pour a little bit back into yourself. And I was at that point about a year ago where I just truly kind of forgot who I was. I would tell people, I felt like I was 14 again in middle school, and I didn't know who I was. But somebody spoke to me and said, you know what you need to do? You need to go back to the basics and you need to go to your scripture. You need to go back to the simple truths of who God is and who God is calling you to be, and believe in that wholeheartedly. Not just say, okay, I believe in it, but to actually inspect the deep crevices of your heart. Look deep and see, are there any lies that I've allowed to creep into my heart that I'm believing about myself, about my life? Am I allowing myself to see things through a filter of just half truths and of lies? And if so, I gotta go back to that. And I have to confront that lie, and I have to confront it with scripture. And this is what the Bible is saying about continuing to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. You know, in the gym, if you want to be a strong person, you have to go to the gym every single day. You don't have to go for two hours, but 20 minutes of a workout will make you the strongest person if you're working out every single day. And then it says to work out your salvation. So we need to be in our scriptures every single day. And then it says with fear and trembling, which means we have to stay vigilant. Are there any voices that I am agreeing to? Are there any lies about myself that I am believing? And to work things out with fear and trembling doesn't mean that you have to be afraid of it. It doesn't mean that you're giving it power. It's just saying be vigilant, be aware of little voices that you're allowing to creep into your heart. And then the verse continues to say, For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. Which means this: you land on this truth every single day. It is God who works in me. When I finally came into alignment and into agreement with that truth, everything in me changed. My mind changed, my heart changed, my attitude changed, my faith became stronger, my faith in God became stronger, who I was became stronger. And I was able to go about my day. And if there was any lie that came out against me, I was able to cast that lie down because in the crevices of my heart, I believed that it was God who worked in me. It wasn't my own strength, it was God the entire time. So my encouragement to you is this if you're feeling like you don't walk in a strong identity, then you need to search the crevices of your heart and start standing on scripture and to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, and to figure out am I believing a lie or am I standing on truth? And what truths do I need to start standing on from now moving forward? The truth of scripture, the truth that says God loves me, the truth that says God protects me, the truth that says God created me, that God is with me, and that God is working in me, that truth is what I need to stand on day after day. And over time, your salvation will only become stronger and stronger. Let's pray. God, we thank you so much for working in us and through us to live in the will that you have planned for us, God. I pray that if there's any lie that we have aligned ourselves with, that we have agreed with, we cast it down right now in the name of Jesus. And Lord, I pray that the spirit of truth will inhabit everybody listening to this podcast, that they will no longer walk in lies, but that they will walk in truth, in scriptural truth, knowing, Lord, that your truth sets us free from all bondage, from all chains, and that, Lord, you set us free to walk in joy, to walk in peace, Lord, and that you are constantly working that out in every single person listening to this today. And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

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