7 Questions to Ask Yourself to Determine Your Heart Health
Tarah Avery
How’s your heart?
This is a question Gordon asks me regularly. He knows that I tend to stuff my feelings, and it is his way of getting me to share what’s happening inside my heart.
Usually, it takes me some time to figure out my feelings. I need a lot of direction – questions to help guide me in understanding how I am really doing because all too often I just don’t think about it. Gordon knows which questions help me sort out my feelings and which don’t: Are you sad? Does it have to do with so & so? And then usually he prays for me and encourages me to pray out loud. That always breaks me. My walls come down, the floodgates come open, and I am a mess.
Maybe you’re a stuffer too?
I have been reading the book, “Gods At War,” by Kyle Idleman, and it is so stinkin’ convicting! I was hesitant to even start reading because I feared I would see all the ugly about myself, and it would ask me to give up my unhealthy addictions (like clothes shopping).
This book talks about the modern idols that we tend to worship – god of money, the god of family, and god of self, for example. It’s hard to see ourselves as idol worshipers, considering most of us don’t build gold statues. But when we talk about issues of the heart, there is usually a root problem, deeper than the surface level stuff, that needs to be uncovered. These root issues usually come down to something(s) or someone we have put in place of God in our lives.
To determine what currently occupies your heart – which god, so to say – ask yourself these 7 questions, and be honest! The best thing you can do is discover what has been taking your attention away from the God who loves you with such a passionate love and so desires to take care of your heart if you’ll only let him.
So are you ready to get down to the heart stuff? Answer yourself honestly.
What disappoints you?
Are you disappointed in your career? Your single life? Your marriage or sex life? Your friendships? When you are overly disappointed, it reveals that you have placed intense hope and longing in something or someone other than God.
What do you complain about the most?
Do you complain about your financial situation? Your dating situation? How about your health? What you complain about is what matters the most to you. Whining shows what has power over us. Whining is the opposite of praising God; it is ignoring who God is and forgetting to be thankful for what he has done for us. I find myself here too often.
Where do you make financial sacrifices?
This is a big one, I think. Where your money goes shows what you value most. What do your bank statements and credit card bills look like?
What worries you?
What wakes you at night or keeps you up? What is consuming your thoughts? Do you care so deeply about something or someone that you imagine worst-case scenarios often?
Where do you go when you are hurting?
Do you go to a trusted confidant/friend? A novel or Netflix? How about the mall? Or fast food? I know I am guilty of almost all of those. It’s easy to allow things or people to replace the peace and comfort that only God can truly give. Where we go says a lot about our hearts. It reveals as Idleman puts it, “the geography of our values.”
What makes you angry?
How about losing a game or sitting in traffic? Is it when someone doesn’t treat you well or you face betrayal?
What are your dreams?
This is the place where you get to choose where your imagination goes. Aspirations are great, but it is the “why?” behind those aspirations that will reveal which god you worship.
Usually, the answers to those questions will help you determine the god of your heart. The god that is perhaps suffocating your heart and leaving you miserably thirsty for something more – receiving life from the one true God.
You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. -Exodus 20:4-5
God created many amazing things for us – food, clothing, family, friends, sex, and marriage – but when we put those things before God in our hearts, they become an idol that we worship.
God is jealous for your affection and your attention. He desires to be your safe place. He has dreams for you, dreams that will make your heart soar! He knows you inside and out. He knows your passions and desires before you even know them yourself. And he has an incredible plan for your life if you will only trust him to unfold that plan in his time – not your own. He longs to give you peace when your heart is anxious, and he wants your trust when all seems to be going wrong.
He desires you. You can trust him with your heart.
So again I ask you Dear friend, how is your heart?
Let me and Gordon know how we can pray for you- anything at all- we’re here.
Your Friend,
