What is the cost of worry? What price do you pay for negativity? What’s the fee for a little gossip and a little envy? Have you checked the price tag attached to that self-doubt? That stress is not on clearance. That drama is astronomically expensive!

Everything you think, everything you say, and everything you do comes at a price. This is all costing you something. Your heart bears the burden of it all and is buried with this debt. And when your heart is buried with the debt of worry, stress, envy, negativity, drama and self-doubt, you are simply held back from living the life you were created for.

Proverbs 4: 23 “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.”

Has your heart been unguarded? Has it been gobbling up everything it can get on the buffet of negativity?

Yes, let me watch the news that tells me all that’s wrong in the world, then let me follow that up with a mini-series on serial killers. Let me read all the posts on the hot topics and drop a few condescending snarky comments here and there and watch the drama unfold. Oh, now let’s scroll through all her photos with envy as I declare surely her life is better than mine and it’s not fair. Why can’t I look like her? Clearly I’m not good enough. Then look around at your own life with that negative filter and be satisfied with absolutely none of it!

Oh you’re still sitting among piles of answered prayers, but your new jaded perspective hides it all. You’re literally dwelling in the things you once asked God for, but your unguarded heart is now ungrateful because it is overwhelmed with the price of all you’ve been buying into.

Girls, it’s time to put our heart on a budget!

Repeat after me: I cannot afford worry, stress, envy, negativity, drama, or self-doubt.

This crap is costing me my life! The very life I was created for, the life Jesus came to die to give me, I’m spending it on complete nonsense and I’m left with a life that’s off course.

Your heart determines the course of your life. This is why Jesus told us in John 14:1 “Do not let your hearts be burdened.” A burdened heart is a heavy heart that drags you down and keeps you from moving forward. A burdened heart carries the load of all it has accumulated along the way.

What have you been accumulating? You’ve been picking up new worries haven’t you? Every day there’s something new added to your load. You’re like a worry magnet. Boom, another worry just stuck to you. New stresses are just piled on, and your heart sinks low. That heavy, burdened heart is susceptible to the drama and falls right into it’s trap. And while you’re here, your already wounded heart comes under the attack of the enemy and you believe his lies that tell you you’re not good enough. Now you’re low, really low.

That’s why our hearts must be put on a budget. The price of all of this is too much. It’s costing us all that Jesus came to give us in this life. Jesus said in John 10:10 “My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.”

But here’s the problem, you can’t live that rich life because your heart bought up all that worry and stress. You spent all your heart’s resources on negativity. You’re not satisfied because your heart walked away with problems instead of peace, drama instead of delight, envy instead of energy, worry instead of wonder, self-doubt instead of self-worth. Girl, it’s what you’re buying!

Put your heart on a budget! Look at the price of what you’re listening to and talking about. Check out the price of who you’re with and what you’re doing. Is it really worth it? NO, IT’S TOTALLY NOT WORTH IT!

Nothing is worth the rich and satisfying life Jesus came to give you. So stop trading it for what the world is offering you. Protect your heart with a budget that reminds you of the true cost.

Do you want to know everything about all the things and hear all the arguing opinions of all the people about it? You could do that today, but my sister, that crap ain’t free. It’s costing you something and your heart pays the price.

Do you really want to scroll through all those posts and photos with your critical and envious eye to confirm the fact that you don’t like your life as much as you like hers? You could do that, but oh mercy that costs a lot my sister! That costs you all your blessings, all your answered prayers, all you have been given already. Are you really willing to exchange what you have for the envy over what she has? That’s a bad exchange. Your heart can’t afford that!

An unguarded, wounded heart becomes the battle grounds of the enemy. He swoops in and stirs up chaos. He pokes at your worries, stretches your stress, and piles on the self-doubt. But he has no place in your heart!

Remember that, the enemy doesn’t belong here. Your heart has been bought and protected by Jesus. Your heart has been inhabited by the Holy Spirit. The slimy sucker, slithering snake, dealer of lies, defeated one has no place in your heart! So recognize the entry points where he’s been slipping in. See the cracks where he’s been gaining access to your heart. Shut him out!

This heart is on a budget. I cannot afford worry, stress, envy, negativity, drama, or self-doubt. It’s those things or the life I’m created for. I choose to buy into what God designed me for! I choose to spend my heart on the things that put me on course instead of off course. I choose the rich and satisfying life Jesus came to give me over the pitiful offerings of the enemy that burden my heart.

Make a good deal today. A good heart deal. A heart on a budget.