Keep vigilant watch over your heart; that’s where life starts. Don’t talk out of both sides of your mouth; avoid careless banter, white lies, and gossip. Keep your eyes straight ahead; ignore all sideshow distractions. Watch your step, and the road will stretch out smooth before you.
Proverbs 4:23-27 The Message (MSG)
The heart, weighing between 7 and 15 ounces, is one of the smallest organs of the body, yet it has the biggest job. That’s quite a paradox, isn’t it? The heart is at the centre of the circulatory system, beating on average 72 times per minute to pump blood to the tissues of the body, supplying oxygen and other nutrients and removing carbon dioxide and other waste matter. The heart is vital to the efficient functioning of the body and must therefore be healthy in order to maintain and preserve overall health. Achieving optimal heart health requires getting adequate rest and exercise, avoiding smoking and second-hand smoke, consuming a diet rich in fruits and vegetables and maintaining a healthy weight among other things. By the same token, poor eating habits and other lifestyle choices lead to poor heart and overall health and ultimately death. Without the heart, there is no life. The heart of the matter is truly a matter of the heart.
In the same way that the physical heart is critical to physical life, the spiritual heart /mind is critical to the quality of a person’s life. The heart is comprised of the mind, will and emotions. It is a part of man’s spiritual makeup and is the organ that drives emotion and behaviour. In essence, our actions are therefore a reflection of our heart. Everything you do and say starts in the heart. According to Matthew 12: 34 and Luke 6:45, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. It’s an undeniable chain reaction. You have a thought, then you act on that thought. So, if you speak it or do it, there can be no question or argument as to whether it is inside you. It definitely is!
In Proverbs 3, 24-27, we are admonished to guard our heart. We must guard it with our life because it IS our life. We must be careful and discriminating as to what we allow into our hearts and mediate on as we become the byproduct of these things. Philippians 4: 6-7 reminds us of the things that we must think about – the good, noble, true, lovely and just, among others. We become what we think about. We become what we focus on, so we must ensure that our heart diet is a healthy one. The heart of man is desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9) and only true repentance – changing the way you think, by God’s grace – can effect change therein.
So, it’s time for a heart check-up, and now is as good a time as ever. Is your heart stony or pliable? God wants to remove a heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh. God wants us to get rid of, as we say in Jamaica, bad-mind (meaning envy and jealousy) and replace it with love so that we can live in peace and unity with each other. Allow Him to do heart surgery today. Your life will never be the same.
As you reflect and pray, enjoy this song from Pastor Donnie McClurkin.
Create In Me a Clean Heart (youtube.com)
Reflection
- What is the state of my heart?
- What do I focus on most of the time?
- Am I producing life or death?
Prayer
Father, I present my heart to you. Fashion it according to your will. I desire to care for my heart by focusing on the things that are wholesome and edifying. Help me to have clean hands and a pure heart so that my life may be pleasing to you. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Sources
What is the heart, according to the Bible? (compellingtruth.org)
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