Where do you go in your heart?

Where do you go in your heart when things are going great?  Where do you go when things are dire? Where do you go when others close to you are burdened and needy?Cheryl and I were reading a little bit of bible together this morning, just ten verses or so. We've been reading our bibles as students and devotionally for a long time now; just little bits. Over years and years it's had the effect of a 5 minute exercise program or doing the crossword every day.  The results dwell with us; we have something like a well of living water, like an inner resource.Now what I just wrote sounds hopelessly clichéd.  But it's like I know I can win the game because I know I've done the work, have the fitness, trust the coach and believe unequivocally the wisdom of his directions. I know it! I've tested it, it works.This morning, as we read, we were upset. Upset at a situation in which a Christian individual was showing disdain for the people of God, disdain for any sense that there was anything they could be taught, blindness to the privilege of simple servant heartedness. It made us sad. As Cheryl and I read God's great hymn to the purifying power of his word, (Psalm 119: 136) it said, "streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed!" One of us burst into tears for (not at) our disdainful friend.If I don't come near the thoughts and ways of God day by day, bit by bit, crossword by crossword (that's a metaphor, folks!) my feet start to slip and I start to lose my way. The Psalmist says, (Psalm 37:31) because the law of his God is in his heart, his feet will not slip. Psalm 73 suggests our feet slip when we get our eyes off God and onto others and ourselves in relation to others.So, where do you go in your heart when things are going great? God says, ‘give thanks in all things for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus’. (1 Thessalonians 5:18) Where do you go when things are dire? God says, ‘trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your path straight’. (Proverbs 3:5,6) How do I live wisely in the midst of all life's circumstances? Psalm 119:10-12: ‘I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Praise be to you, O Lord; teach me your decrees.’Get your eyes on God's word!Taking God at his word is wise. Trusting God more than myself is hard but frequently, to quote G. K. Chesterton, 'the Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried'!Malcolm