The heart is a complex part of our bodies. It's pretty important...I mean it kind of keeps us alive. I could go into the anatomy of the heart and the circulatory system and how it relates and works with the lungs and kidneys and all sorts of medical stuff that would probably put both of my blog readers to sleep. When I was in nursing school, the cardiac system was the most fascinating to me and I loved learning about it. Lots of my patients have heart issues and it's my job to make sure they understand the disease process, the medications, diet and fluid requirements and hopefully keep them out of the hospital. It's truly awesome how this organ the size of your fist does so many things in a split second, before you could even blink an eye. So I understand the structure of the heart, the function of the heart, the diseases of the heart...but there's this entirely other dimension to the heart that is so complex, so utterly unexplainable, so mind blowing that I feel like it's the 8th wonder of the world.
Did you know your heart could break without killing you? It can speed up it's rate just by you looking at or thinking about something scary, beautiful or exciting. It can "sink" without actually moving! The heart isn't just important to us, it's also very clearly important to God. Not only did He create us and all of our intricate parts and systems, but He also has a lot to say about how we should use it in spiritual and emotional contexts. If you do an online bible search using the word "heart" in the NLT version, do you know how many times that word comes up? Well, I've looked, and it's 573. The bible is split into a total of 66 books between the Old and New Testaments. I'm not really a math person, but I do have a calculator app on my phone, and if you divide 573/66, the word is mentioned an average of 8.68 times per book. I don't think it's ever referencing the physical function of the heart. It's always related to the emotional/spiritual aspect. Here are a few of the things the Bible has to say about our hearts:
Psalm 19:14 New Living Translation (NLT):
"May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you,O Lord, my rock and my redeemer."
Matthew 6:21New Living Translation (NLT):
"Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be."
Proverbs 3:5 New Living Translation (NLT):
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding."
Proverbs 4:23 New Living Translation (NLT):
"Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life."
Psalm 51:10 New Living Translation (NLT):
"Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me."
Psalm 73:26 New Living Translation (NLT):
"My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever."
Philippians 4:7 New Living Translation (NLT):
"Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus."
John 14:27 New Living Translation (NLT):
“I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid."
Matthew 5:8 New Living Translation (NLT):
"God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God."
Psalm 34:18 New Living Translation (NLT):
"The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed."
Mark 6:52 New Living Translation (NLT):
"for they still didn’t understand the significance of the miracle of the loaves. Their hearts were too hard to take it in."
Ezekiel 2:4 New Living Translation (NLT):
"They are stubborn and hard-hearted people. But I am sending you to say to them, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says!"
Hosea 10:12 New Living Translation (NLT):
"I said, ‘Plant the good seeds of righteousness, and you will harvest a crop of love. Plow up the hard ground of your hearts, for now is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and shower righteousness upon you.’"
Zechariah 7:12 New Living Translation (NLT):
"They made their hearts as hard as stone, so they could not hear the instructions or the messages that the Lord of Heaven’s Armies had sent them by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. That is why the Lord of Heaven’s Armies was so angry with them."
Our hearts are so fragile. They can feel so deeply; they can lead us astray or lead us closer to God. They can break and they can harden and they can love and they can hate. Our hearts are the gateway to our souls, and our souls are what live on with Jesus at the end of our physical life. What we feed our hearts and what we do with them can determine the course of our life here on earth and beyond. How do we control the things our heart feels and does though? When we've been hurt, rejected, bullied, manipulated, lied to, betrayed...when we become jealous or bitter or resentful...how do we not allow our hearts to harden? How do we allow our hearts to forgive and to feel joy after years of pain and hurt? How do we "love our enemy as ourselves??"
Well, let me just be blunt. We can't. On our own, we cannot possibly have a heart change. We cannot possibly control what our hearts feel or what our hearts are fed or dealt in this life. Oh, by the way, we cannot change anyone else's heart either, despite how much we may try! We cannot change a heart, not ours or anyone else's. But guess what? The Holy Spirit can! The Holy Spirit has done things in my heart that I would never have imagined would be possible. There's a catch though, you knew there would be (just like in the infomercials). We have to LET God do the work in us and through us. That's a choice. We all have a choice in whether we allow God to shape and refine and change our hearts or not. Sure, He is God and He can change a person's heart at any time whether they "allow" Him to or not. If He does change a heart that drastically, there is still a road ahead that heart has to go down. More hurt, more pain, more devastation can cause that heart to harden right back up again. It's the process of prayer, of relationship with God that changes our hearts and keeps us on the right path. In this world, Jesus said WE WILL have troubles. But He also says, "take heart, for I have overcome the world." By HIS blood, we are saved and by HIS Spirit, our hearts can be made new.
I pray that whatever is going on in your heart right now that is causing it to harden or causing it to break, that you will invite the Holy Spirit in and allow God to transform your heart! He can do it. He's the ONLY ONE WHO CAN! You can fight it, and trust me, I have...a lot! But that is just exhausting and very similar to spinning your wheels in a mud pit. Fighting God isn't going to get you anywhere, certainly not closer to Him. And the closer to Him you are, the more your heart is changed into the one that He intended you to have in the first place...before all the hurt of this broken world got to it.
Lord, may the hearts of those who hear Your word and obey Your Spirit be blessed, changed, protected, put back together and fully healed by Your love, grace and mercy. Thank You for creating this fascinating 4 chambered pumping machine in us that doesn't just keep us alive physically, but spiritually and emotionally as well. Thank You for creating us in Your image! Thank You for sending Your son, who's heart was pierced so ours could beat forever with His. Amen!
