My Heart, His Sanctuary

 •  2 min. read  •  grade level: 4
 
“Thou God seest me.” Genesis 16:13
Smug, I was, in the completion of my God-given duties. I had arisen early, prepared breakfast and dispatched my children and husband after the family reading. But anger boiled in my heart. I began my chores with rigor, tackling the laundry first. I fairly ran from room to room putting away the clean clothes. I felt confident in my goodness as a wife and mother. I was so noble. I had hid my anger from my family. As I put away the last of the clothes in my daughter’s room, the bottom drawer of the bureau stuck. The lid came off of the boiling pot of my anger and I kicked the drawer to make it close. The immoveable drawer mocked me and I kicked it again. It felt good to kick the drawer, so I did it again ... and again ... and again. Unmoved by my anger, the drawer held to its attitude. I got on my knees, readjusted the drawer’s position and slammed it shut. Again, I felt as a conqueror over every obstacle. The release of my anger felt so good. I enjoyed my anger and reveled in the thought that I could express it without my family knowing. But, GOD saw.
A little while later, I needed to retrieve an object from the deck. In the hurry of my duty, I didn’t see the loose board on the deck. My foot, the same foot that kicked the drawer, contacted the loose board and over I went, sprawled out on the deck. It was there that God seemed to say, “I see you. I see your anger. Your duty is meaningless because of the pride in your heart.” Oh! How I cried! How I wept! Yes, my foot hurt, but not nearly so much as my heart. My hot tears were not from the heat of anger, but from shame in the realization of my pride. How good the Lord was to stop me in my tracks, or should I say, to “flop” me in my tracks. Like the drawer, I was immoveable in my attitude. It takes prayer to adjust an immoveable attitude. Sometimes, the Lord “trips” us up to put us on our knees. How we should praise Him for the adjustments He makes in our lives! Never is anything unseen by Him. His presence is all-encompassing. His presence reaches to the secret places of the heart and examines what is allowed there. Your heart, dear Christian, is His sanctuary. Maintain it as a holy place.
“What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).