What’s the difference between living from your heart – and living from your hurts?
Dr. Jim Wilder is the author of Living From The Heart Jesus Gave You. He helps us understand the difference between living from your heart and living from your hurts.
“Living from your hurt means that you are looking at your life according to what you need to avoid, what you’re afraid of.”
Essentially, when we live from our hurt, our fears are guiding the decisions we make.
“I don’t want to say ‘that’ – because someone is going to be upset. If I don’t take care of ‘this’ problem, something bad will happen to my family or myself.”
When we live from our hurts, we’re living to avoid upsetting anyone, whatever the cost.
Jim shares one example of an entire church leadership group he encountered that was living from their hurts.
“I was talking to a church staff one time and they said, ‘We can’t do that because so-and-so will be upset. It’s interesting that the whole church was being stirred up and steered by the most emotionally immature person in the church, the person who was most likely to get upset.”
Other times, living from our hurts prompts us to try to control everyone around us because we find it easier to control them than our own emotions.
What does it mean to live from your heart?
It’s important to understand what the Bible really means by our heart.
“In the Bible, your heart is not your emotions. Your heart is your eyes and your ears in the Spirit. Whenever God says you have a hard heart, it’s because you’re not hearing and seeing God. When your heart is clear, you see that God is with you. When you see that God is with you, the world looks very different than it would otherwise.”
When we live from our heart, we are always bringing God’s perspective to bear on our current circumstances.
“Even if someone doesn’t like you, you realize that they aren’t seeing you the way God does.”
Dr. Wilder says, “The most important part of living from your heart is having some kind of active connection with God as you’re going through your day.”
Susie Larson from Faith Radio interviewed Dr. Jim Wilder in July 2017 and that popular conversation was re-broadcast October 24 and is available in its entirety on this podcast.
Discover the joy of Living From The Heart Jesus Gave You so you can stop living from your hurts.
Listen to the full conversation on this podcast!
