We here are not talking about the beating organ in our chest. In Scripture, the words heart, thoughts, mind, or affections speak about what is inside us. What we are or what we do daily will be greatly determined by what is in our heart, because what is there will lead our actions. Whether they are good, bad, or indifferent.
Jeremiah 17:9 – The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
Have you ever heard somebody say “follow your heart”? That sounds risky to me. My observation is that our hearts can lead us to things that, while certainly we may want them, are not necessarily good for us. Has this ever been true in your life? Have you ever wanted something that you were damaged by having?
Mark 7: 20-22 – He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. 21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.
Matthew 12:34 – You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.
You can always tell what is important to somebody by what comes up the most in conversation. Do you know somebody who is always talking about their lust, or their party life, or money? Do you know somebody who is always talking about Jesus? Whatever is coming out of our mouth is the overflow from our own hearts.
Proverbs 27:19 – As water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart.
Proverbs 4:23 – Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
We are what we eat. Our hearts do not have to be wicked instruments that only lead us away. If we ingest unhealthy content that corrupts, we are bound to have a dirty heart. Just like the real heart organ is contaminated by cholesterol if we eat dirty, our spiritual life is corrupted when we take in dirty content.
Psalm 44: 20-21 – If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, 21 would not God have discovered it, since he knows the secrets of the heart?
Psalm 139: 23-24 – Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
With God, we can train our hearts. God will give us a heart transplant at the point of conversion, and if we remain faithful, we will discover that we long for things we did not used to long for, while we are repulsed by things that used to attract us. We will want what God wants, and we will hate what God hates.
It is as simple as praying this.
Psalm 51:10 – Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
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