Pour out Your Heart: Simple Stepping Stones to Finding Peace in a World of Care

By Deborah Byrd

While we live in this challenging world, God reaches out to all whose hearts are full of fear, hurt, anger, discouragement, and hopelessness. It is Gods desire to take these hurtful emotions and replace them with His love, peace, joy hope, faith, and strength. Just as a full glass cannot contain one more drop of water without overflowing, so it is with our hearts. They are so full of the negative that there is no room for Gods positive.

Follow me on the journey of heart healing as we learn to pour out our hearts to God and allow Him to refill them. Receive simple encouragement and instruction from His Word as we continue on the path of discovering the depths of His Love. It is possible to find peace while living in this world of care.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Aug 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9781490801964

Deborah Byrd

Deborah Byrd has been in a Christian counseling ministry for twenty-four years. She facilitates a weekly healing group where God’s love and grace work life-changing miracles. She also teaches a Bible study in closing to encourage and comfort all attending. Deborah resides in Phenix City, Alabama.

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Copyright © 2013 Deborah Byrd.

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Scripture taken from the Amplified Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

ISBN: 978-1-4908-0197-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-0198-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-0196-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013912706

WestBow Press rev. date: 7/31/2013

Contents

Introduction

1.   Pour Out Your Heart

2.   A Larger Place

3.   Looking at the Heart

4.   Open Your Hands

5.   Letting Go of Anger

6.   Letting Go of Fear

7.   Letting Go of Hurt

8.   The Secret Place

9.   I AM

10.   The Necessity to Process Anger

11.   Sometimes You Just Need to Cry!

12.   Tossed on the Waves of Fear and Doubt

13.   Are You Longing to See the Glory of God?

14.   Drawing Close to the Pain Brings a Blessing

15.   I Will Harden You to Difficulties

16.   Are You in a State of Distress?

17.   Rend Your Hearts

18.   He Heals the Brokenhearted

19.   Jesus Understands and Feels Our Pain

20.   Has Your Spiritual Breath Been Knocked Out?

21.   The Healing Touch

22.   What Do You Do When You Are Afraid?

23.   Stability in the Day of Adversity

24.   Tearing Down, Letting Go, Building Up

25.   Godly Grief vs. Worldly Grief

26.   Waiting on God

27.   Can Good Come from Suffering?

28.   Without Love, All Is in Vain

29.   True Faith

30.   Good Things from Troubles

31.   The Spiritual Fight

32.   Undefeated by Circumstances

33.   True Compassion

34.   The Power of Unconditional love

35.   Are You Afraid of Living?

36.   Staying Optimistic in a Pessimistic World

37.   The Path to Spiritual Maturity

38.   Lord, Give Us Courage

39.   Trapped in Misery?

40.   Running the Race

41.   The Prodigal

42.   Turning Back to God

43.   Receiving God’s Help

44.   Our Comforting God

45.   Staying Stable in a Changing World

46.   Value in Sadness

47.   One Day at a Time

48.   In the Middle of a Storm

49.   Jesus’ Yoke

50.   The Power of Negative and Positive Words

51.   Repent!

52.   When Life Knocks You Down

53.   The Highest Calling: To Love Him

54.   The God Who Sees in Secret

55.   Everybody Needs Encouragement!

56.   Don’t Fret!

57.   Anxiety and the Heart

58.   The True Meaning of Blessed

59.   God Uses Our Words

60.   Doves’ Eyes

61.   The Need for Balance in our Lives

62.   Run to God to Attain Rest Within

63.   When Relationships Disappoint You

64.   Don’t Give Up on Life!

65.   Are You Angry with God?

66.   The Path to Larger Faith

67.   The Spirit of Fear

68.   Running

69.   Strength Out of Weakness

70.   Disappointment

71.   Gentle Tongue vs. Angry Tongue

72.   Renewing Your Spirit

73.   In the Time of Trouble

74.   The Partnership of Kindness and Forgiveness

75.   When the Enemy Comes in Like a Flood

76.   Positive Complaining

77.   Shelter Me, Oh Lord!

78.   Feeling Like You Can’t Go On

79.   Enduring Love

80.   Overcoming in the World

81.   The God of Contentment

82.   Overcoming in Spite of Fear

83.   God Loves the World

84.   Finding Peace within Imperfect Circumstances

85.   Is Darkness Blinding Your Faith?

86.   Being Listened To

87.   The Little Foxes That Spoil the Vineyard

88.   Faith Pleases God

89.   Believing through Hard Times

90.   Loving the World

91.   The Path to Contentment

92.   Is Healing for Today?

93.   I Am Willing

94.   Self-Pity

95.   Enduring

96.   A Way of Escape

97.   The Faithful Love of Jesus

98.   Humility Leads to Peace

99.   Negative Meditation

100.   Misunderstood and Rejected?

101.   Comparing Makes Us Unwise

102.   True Joy in This World

103.   The Blessing of Being a Giver

104.   Waiting and Weary

105.   Forgiveness Is Essential

106.   Dealing with Anger

107.   Are You in the Pit?

108.   Do Not Harden Your Heart

109.   Weary and Discouraged?

110.   Fretting Pulls Us in the Wrong Direction

111.   Show Me What Love Is

112.   Running Uphill

113.   Unbelief

114.   Humility

115.   Solitude

116.   Flesh vs. Spirit

117.   Survival Mode

118.   Disillusioned with God

119.   God’s Supernatural Love on Display

120.   Suffering

121.   Balancing the Negative and Positive with Truth

122.   The Key to Loving Others

123.   Through the Hard Times

124.   Building on Rock or Sand?

125.   Release

126.   Efforts and Worries in Vain

127.   Contentment

128.   Calmness in the Day of Adversity

129.   Cast Your Burden on the Lord

130.   Keep on Loving!

131.   Jesus Calls

Introduction

What is in your heart, Deborah? I heard the still, small voice of the Lord asking the question in the midst of my struggles.

My heart? I thought. What do you mean by heart? The word heart was like a foreign word to me. I was busy-busy, doing for the Lord and doing for the needy. Didn’t he know that? At the same time, I was attempting to be the best wife, mother, and homemaker on the planet. I was one stressed, overwhelmed young woman! But God heard the cries of my heart even before I knew my heart was crying and broken.

That experience happened many years ago, and little did I know that I was about to embark on a journey of spiritual, emotional, and physical healing that would take my heart to a secret place (Psalm 91) where God’s love heals, transforms, empowers, and keeps us moving forward into spiritual maturity and enlightenment.

As we live in this challenging world, God reaches out to all whose hearts have been broken and wounded, offering the promise of Psalm 147:3: He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds [curing their pains and their sorrow]. It is my prayer that this simple book will encourage many to keep pressing on in a growing, loving, and passionate heart-relationship with Jesus Christ, that through times of faith or times of faltering all will experientially discover that our loving God is always present to help and heal the heart of the struggling soul.

Follow me on a journey of heart-healing, as we learn how the simple prayer of pouring out the heart’s fear, hurt, anger, discouragement, and hopelessness onto Jesus makes room for His Spirit to refill the heart with His love, joy, peace, hope, and faith. God desires and promises true heart healing for each and every struggling soul.

So I ask, what is in your heart?

1

Pour Out Your Heart

Trust in, lean on, rely on, and have confidence in Him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts before Him. God is a refuge for us [a fortress and a high tower]. Selah (Psalm 62:8).

Have you ever tried to pour water into a glass that is already full? If so, then you know what happens: the water spills over the sides. The glass cannot contain the new water because it is full! So it is with our hearts. God desires to pour His love, peace, joy, hope, faith, and strength into our hearts, but they are full. They are full to the brim with past and present worries, fears, disappointments, hurts, and frustrations that our circumstances seem to create. The negative emotions that fill our hearts leave no room for the loving Lord to give us what we need.

So how do we pour out the negative to make room for the positive? We begin by talking to Jesus about what we are really feeling. The important factor is that we must feel what we are pouring out to truly let go and release our negative emotions. As this way of praying becomes more familiar, we will gradually find Him replacing the negative in our hearts with His healing ointment, which causes His love, peace, joy, hope, faith, and strength to be experienced in our lives. Remember, God is the place of safety to run to when our hearts feel overwhelmed.

2

A Larger Place

They came upon me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my stay. He brought me forth into a larger place (2 Samuel 22:19–20a).

More often than not, when we find ourselves in the midst of hardship, adversity, trouble, or heartbreak, our thoughts and emotions become dominated by feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, annoyance, fear, and a sense of being overwhelmed. There will be seasons of difficulty and problems for all of us who live on fallen planet Earth. Yet we need not fear these times because, as we turn to the Lord, our struggles will take us to a larger place. Thus King David stated that in the day of his calamity, the Lord was my stay. In other words, David said that in the middle of the mess, the Lord was his break, his vacation, a place to stay for a time and find release, relief, and rest. In God’s presence, David poured out his overwhelmed heart and received help, hope, faith, joy, and love, therefore transporting himself to a bigger spiritual place than he had known before. So let’s not waste our troubles, but let us use them as a catalyst to turn toward the living Lord as our stay. Then He will bring us to a larger place of spiritual maturity and intimacy with Him that will surpass our greatest expectations!

3

Looking at the Heart

For the Lord sees not as man sees; for man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart (1 Samuel 16:7b).

The outward appearance of our lives is often different from what’s really going on inwardly. In our natural state, we are usually working very hard to make the external look good in hopes of convincing ourselves and others that all is well. When our main focus is on trying to find fulfillment through outward appearance rather than looking within ourselves, we can easily fall into religious hypocrisy, superficiality, and judgment of others to cover up our own shortcomings. Because we spend so much of our energy on the outside, we get caught up in doing and producing, and we never consider matters of the heart that lead us toward being and receiving.

Receiving from God will bring truth and healing into our hearts. As our hearts learn to abide with Him, we will relate to others with His heart of understanding, not with judgment. Because of Christ Jesus, we are in harmony with God, and He forgives, unconditionally loves, and accepts us for who we are. When we truly believe this, we will be able to accept ourselves and others in this way. God is concerned about our hearts and wants to help us look inside and not be afraid to be real with Him or ourselves. Our hearts are the place where spiritual closeness (being) will blossom and ultimately bring fulfillment and purpose to both our inside and outside lives.

4

Open Your Hands

Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully (1 Peter 5:7).

The dictionary states that the word casting is a verb meaning to throw something away from yourself. Yet we cannot throw or let go of anything until we learn to open our hands and hearts. Without realizing it, we hold on to our worries, doubts, uncertainties, and fears, grasping them tightly from sunrise to sunset. The fretfulness and nervousness we feel keeps our hearts bound in the condition of anguish. Then we feel overwhelmed and don’t know how to let go of the exhausting effects of our problems. Yet in spite of the negative emotional and spiritual clamor, Christ gently and sweetly calls us to hand over our anxieties, worries, and concerns to Him. Through my experience over the years, the Lord has taught me

Reviews for Pour out Your Heart

[lamotamant · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a potentially very biased review.

Okay, this is a very biased review. However, don't discount it just yet. I am extremely grateful for and have a lot of love for both this book and the author. I can say with complete honesty that this book was written by a woman with a lot of wisdom, compassion, and love. I can also say, from an unbiased nerd-level-reader perspective, that these things shine throughout this book.

I'm a firm believer in reading books at the right point in your life. I think there will be several points in my life that I will turn to this book for different reasons and will probably receive different things at these points from it. However, right this moment, I can say that it's a wonderful book to turn to if you're looking for peace, a love that is healing and deeply revealing, and a wisdom that can lead you to a positive place in your mind, body, and soul.