When we logically think about the heart, I find it surprising that it gets all the credit for love and other emotions. The heart is an organ in our body that begins pumping blood at 22 days after conception. It continues to pump oxygenated and nutrient rich blood cells to every organ in the body in order to sustain life for many years. The Heart is an amazing, hard-working organ, although it would seem logical that the brain would get the credit for love etc. not the heart? So, let’s look deeper.
God, the creator of the earth and our bodies, was the first to begin naming the heart as the center of a person’s emotional being. In the Bible, there are more than 1000 references to the emotions and conditions of the heart. Everything from love, desire, believing, wisdom, understanding, evil, lust, greed, plotting violence, calloused, troubled and broken hearts just to name a few.
Deuteronomy 6:5 love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
Psalm 20:4 May he give you the desire of your heart and makes all your plans succeed.
Psalm 34:18 The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
Mark 7:21a For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come.
Proverbs 17:22 A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
So why does the heart get the credit? I believe it’s because the brain processes what it takes in, but within the brain, the emotions, reality and often the truth has the ability to change, sometimes easily. I think this is because the brain is taking in so much information from many different sources every minute of the day. In regard to the heart, it reacts to love, hate, joy and every other thing in true fashion. It responds, it can speed up, slow down or react according to what is true. I know from experience that the heart can physically hurt in your chest when you suffer great loss or betrayal. The heart seems to hold the real truth about a person.
So how does the heart know what to hold on to? I think the answer is in this Bible verse: Matthew 6:21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. To treasure something is to keep it carefully. The key word here is KEEP. What we keep foremost in our thoughts and speech and probably what we obsess about sticks, good or bad. What can we do? I believe we must let negative things go immediately-don’t give them time in your life. Say, “I reject this thought in Jesus’ name!” Say, “I forgive in Jesus’ name!” Say, “This is not worth my time, energy, space in my brain or room in my heart!” It’s like a dirty house, by not keeping up with the cleaning every day, a person will have a monumental mess on the day it becomes a real problem. So it will be for people who kept hold of hate, bitterness and every kind of evil or negative emotion.
The thing is, a person can say or act a certain way and sometimes it may not be how they really feel or believe, but eventually the truth will come out. Know this, no-one can hide what is in their heart from God
Acts 15:8 God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us.
I’ve had this little booklet for many years, it’s called: My Heart-Christ’s Home, by Robert Boyd Munger. In the booklet, Robert writes a story about Jesus and a human. In the story, Jesus comes to see this person and they let Jesus visit, not really intending for him to stay for a long period of time. The author uses a home as a metaphor for the heart from this verse: John 14:23 NKJV “If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him.”
The interesting part of the book is that Jesus visits every room; the study, the dining room, the living room, the workroom, the rec room, the bedroom and then the hall closet. Often the person is embarrassed by what Jesus finds because this person’s life is somewhat messy, and then there is this one closet that has a bad smell coming from it. The person doesn’t want Jesus to go into it because it contains things this person never wants anyone to see or know about. This person says, “They were dead and rotting things leftover from the old life-not wicked, but not right and good to have in a Christian life. Yet I loved them.” This person tells the Lord, “I’ll give you the key, but you will have to open the closet and clean it out. I haven’t the strength to do it.” Jesus says, “I know you haven’t. Just give me the key. Just authorize me to handle that closet, and I will.”
Robert Boyd Munger’s booklet is very well written. Each room has a lesson in itself about how we “handle” Jesus in each area of our life instead of giving him the authorization (the key) to keep our home in good shape. Jesus knows all, he smells the stench of what we are hiding. He knows we don’t have the strength to clean it up on our own. Like the person in the book, they may not be out and out wicked, but nevertheless they have things buried in their heart. It is the truth that cannot be cleaned up by anyone but Jesus. Jesus is eager to clean our house and restore peace and joy and give us back our freedom.
The big question this week for us all to ponder is: Who controls my heart? Can we say, My heart Christ’s home or not? We are the only one who can answer that question. We are the only one with the key.
My Heart-Christ’s Home, a small booklet by Robert Boyd was first published in 1954 by Varsity Christian Fellowship and revised in 1986 but is still in print. That’s how good it is. You can order it from Walmart.com for $2.62 at the link below.
Prayer
Lord, you say the key to life and death are in the power of our tongue, so may we verbally give you the key to our heart. Please come and clean up the mess we have made. Clean out the closets of our mind and our heart. Clean our house and make it smell like the perfume of heaven, not the stench of earth. In our minds we think we are good, but in our hearts the truth comes out eventually, but you already see and know it. You made it that way, Lord. You needed a way to know us intimately, to know our needs and desires. To know our weaknesses and the devastation of our sin and heartbreak. It’s brilliant Lord. There is no one or nothing that compares to you, oh great Creator, Almighty God. We give you praise. From 22 weeks on our hearts beat for you, and because of you, may we allow that truth to sink into our soul. It’s you Lord, only you. No other fills that void, no other can. No other knows what’s in our heart or who we really are and can be. We can run away but we can’t hide from you Lord, but we try, forgive us Father. You will leave the 99 to find the one that’s lost until we repeatedly reject you, then we are on our own. How sad the day of no more pursuit for some. We lift up the lost and those that flat out rejected you. Awaken, shake, rattle and roll them out of their stupor. Bring all of us to our knees where we are forced to make a decision about who will be living in the home of our heart. Thank you, Lord, for my heart, fill it with yours. In, Jesus’ name, amen.
God Bless
Sally
