Introduction
My Heart Beats For Him And It Beats For You
This is a book of my HeartBeats that started out with simple messages to help encourage myself and my friends in their daily journey. Each day as I wrote what was on my heart, I could sense the beat of my own heart praying for the hearts of others who believed their hearts could or would never beat again. As I sensed the impossible situations my friends were facing, I was driven to share the unlimited possibilities of a loving, merciful God, and hence HeartBeats was born.
I have been in lifeless situations and deeply understand the feeling of hopelessness that can settle down on the inside of us. Sometimes the darkness can settle in so deep that we feel like we have no beat left in us, no air to breathe. As I wrote my simple messages, I became amazed at what a word can do to change someone’s perspective or how a loving thought can flip the switch on the inside to cause a song to suddenly come alive in a broken heart. Where there once was no beat, no song, no hope, just shattered pieces, now a sweet melody arises. HeartBeats are words sent to me that have changed my life and the lives of others. We all have a song, we all have a HeartBeat; we just have to find it.
I lived many a year as a dead woman walking until I met the Creator who makes all things beautiful in His time. When I learned of His love and allowed Him to take me in, everything changed. He told me of His everlasting love. He drew me with loving kindness and made me aware of how wonderful we are in His eyes. Thankfully I am far from perfect. I still go through hard times, but now He is the difference. I know where to run to, how to get there, and most importantly, who to run to.
I suffered much excruciating loss from an early age, and that loss left a hole so deep in me that it shattered my being into a mess of broken, tearful, painful pieces. Have you ever noticed that if we drop something that shatters into many pieces, we don’t even try to piece it all back together again but rather tend to sweep up the broken pieces and just throw them away? Yet if we drop something—let’s say a dish—and only a few pieces break off we gather the pieces, glue them back together, and position the dish back on the shelf in such a way so that no one ever knows it was even broken. I am so thankful that God can take every shattered piece of our lives and make it whole again. He restores, and His warranty never runs out. As a matter of fact, His love never runs out. He makes us new all over again so that we can live life as a brand new creation made in His glorious Image.
My HeartBeats are a gift to me and yours to keep. These HeartBeats contain tears, joy, laughter, hope, grace, and mostly His love and promise to you and me for a better life and eternal one with Him.
In this HeartBeats collection you will read of the bitter and the sweet, the hard times and the easy, breezy times where the sun is shining and you think it will never rain again. I know now, more than ever, that it will rain again, but now I can rein in the rain and find refuge from the storm.
My heart ached for such a long time, and there was such a need for an expression to go out from me that I started writing simple, honest thoughts about where I was in the midst of it all. I didn’t realize there would be such a sacred, overwhelming response from those who were also going through it, searching for a word in season that would bring relief from the same pain I was feeling, for a HeartBeat that would restore newness of life,
Many of you have asked me to put my messages in a book, so with your inspiration, I have done just that; I’ve created HeartBeats, hopefully the first of many, with you in mind. I sense the beating of His heart and the beating of my heart that desires to take you to a place within yourself where you once again will find life’s rhythm.
It’s truly my deep, sincere hope that within these pages you will find a refreshing, a refueling, and a rhythm that beats with passion to live with grace in the fullness of His new life. Trust the Lord, for He will lead you deeper, closer, and higher than you ever thought possible.
I love you,
Gale Alvarez
Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. (Ephesians 3:20–21 KJV)
From the Gale Alvarez devotional, HeartBeats, the rhythm of love available at galealvarez.com, Amazon and other outlets.
I need to to thank you for this great read!! I certainly loved every bit of it. I have got you book-marked to look at new things you postÖ
Blessings. Thank you for the encouragement; it goes a long way. May you reap kindness.