Matters of the heart

“My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. 21 Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart; 22 For they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh. 23 Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.” – Proverbs 4:20-23

The word heart appears 830 times in the bible. The biblical writers describe the heart as the very core of our being, our thoughts (Proverbs 23:7), our wills (Daniel 1:8) our emotions (John 14:1) our understanding (Matthew 13:15) our identity (Matthew 15:19). How we see GOD (Psalm 14:1), how we see ourselves (1 John 3:20) and how we see others (Matthew 5:21-27).

So according to the bible every facet of the human existence and experience revolves around the heart, unfortunately every human heart has been corrupted by sin and rebellion Genesis 6:5 “Then [a]the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent[b] of the thoughts of his heart was only evil [c]continually.”, Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and [a]desperately wicked; Who can know it?”, Isaiah 53:6 “All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord [a]has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” and Romans 5:12 “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—”.

However, there is good news! GOD the creator of the human heart has set out to rescue our hearts from evil. And he is also known as the great physician Luke wrote, “12 And it happened when He was in a certain city, that behold, a man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus; and he fell on his face and [a]implored Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” 13 Then He put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately the leprosy left him. 14 And He charged him to tell no one, “But go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as a testimony to them, just as Moses commanded.” 15 However, the report went around concerning Him all the more; and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by Him of their infirmities” Luke 5:12-15. “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their [a]wounds” Psalm 147:3. HE is the only one that can heal the human heart condition.

How do these truths apply to our experience as children of GOD? Understanding the importance of keeping ourselves through constant self-examination by the word of GOD and prayer because we are not exempt from having our hearts deceived and corrupted in fact we are especially vulnerable because the world around us is corrupt and evil 2 Corinthians 13:5 Psalm 139:23-24 Matthew 7:13.

Realizing that we must prioritize transparency and accountability in our relationships with others, “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; 13 but [a]exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin” Hebrews 3:12-13; “Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds” Colossians 3:9, and “redeeming the time, because the days are evil” Ephesians 5:16.

And lastly there is the absolute necessity of giving our whole heart over to the LORD and not holding anything back, “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ [a]This is the first commandment” Mark 12:30 and “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope” Jeremiah 29:11.

The heart of the matter: if our relationship with GOD and one another only consists of coming together on Sundays we are at risk of having our hearts deceived and corrupted. GOD desires our hearts not our lip service (Matthew 15:8), nor our works (Matthew 7:21-24), nor our righteous behavior “But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like [a]filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away” Isaiah 64:6. If our works aren’t a result of GOD working in our hearts we are missing the mark (Matthew 5:20). Saying all the right things and doing all the right things before men but having hearts full of all kinds of evil and hypocrisy (Matthew 23) is not what GOD requires. What GOD requires of us is our hearts that HE might make us pure in his sight Psalm 119:9 “How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word”; 2 Corinthians 7:1 “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God”; Titus 2:14 “who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.”

There is a distinction between genuine spirit led change and behavior modification, but there is a thin line, because our hearts are so deceitful we can sometimes confuse the two and so deceive ourselves and others even the most devout believers are subject to their own vanity the only way to truly know the difference is to commit our all to knowing the LORD personally intimately we were all created for that purpose we do this by spending time with HIM quality alone time in his word (Matthew 6:6) pray intently about getting know him asking him (Philippians 3:10-11) to reveal himself.

We can have the kind of experience that the early disciples had we can share in that same experience that caused them to turn the world upside down Acts 17:6; 1 John 1; Ecclesiastes 3:17-18; 1 John 2:6; John 10:27-28; John 15:1-5. Are we longing for this type of experience? Or are we just being religious and waiting to get to heaven?

Our gracious GOD, our sole desire is to know your clear desire is to be known by your people reveal yourself to us as we seek to demonstrate your love to one another and the world.

Calvin Kindell