Listen carefully to my words. Don’t lose sight of them. Let them penetrate deep into your heart, for they bring life to those who find them, and healing to their whole body. Proverbs 4:20–22 (NLT)
Years ago, I worked in a hospital, prepping patients for surgery. I’ll never forget witnessing the strength of one patient’s heart beliefs first-hand.
As I prepared the IV for a lady slated for a simple surgical procedure, she began panicking uncontrollably. She started fearfully telling me over and over how she was going to die if she went into the operating room. I tried to calm her down, but it was futile. Anxiety and fear overtook her so forcefully that it caused her heart rhythm to become dangerously erratic.
I quickly called for emergency staff who raced in and deployed the defibrillator to revert her heart to a safe, regular rhythm. When the doctor found out that the woman believed she would die in surgery, he immediately refused to operate on her. Now, even if this lady understood logically that her odds of dying were low, her heart believed otherwise, and that belief overpowered everything else.
The truth is, we are all works in progress when it comes to correcting heart misbeliefs. Often, we hold beliefs we aren’t even aware of, ingrained in us by family, teachers, culture or religion.
With Holy Spirit’s coaching, however, we can work to squeeze out old misbeliefs from our hearts and replace them with fresh, freeing beliefs established in God’s grace and truths.
Like farmers sow their seed, we must sow God’s Word in our hearts through meditation, study and verbal confession. Then, as “the seed sprouts and grows” (Mark 4:26, NLT), our hearts start growing a harvest of prosperity, peace and joy. Hearts radiate what they believe!
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