The Heart of the Matter
How’s your heart? Not that pump between your lungs which beats on average 72 times a minute, but that spiritual organ which integrates your thinking, feeling and responding.
Peter Baker | 21:10, Saturday 7 January 2012
We live in fact from the heart - the interior life. For the part of us that drives and organises how we think, who we are and what we do, is not the physical but the spiritual. There’s no denying the complex interplay between the biochemistry of the body and the spirit. But inescapably, according to Jesus, words and actions are the external reflex of what is internal.
So this year, in our motto text, we focus on the critical area of inner self-awareness and transformation. Guard your heart!
That phrase comes from God’s little book of wisdom - the Proverbs. It’s a self-help manual to give us key life skills. The great goal of life is wisdom. To get wisdom, we must begin with the fear of God and to keep it, we must guard our heart.
the human heart is an idol-making factory
And the human heart is an idol-making factory. So we will need to monitor, among other things, what we value in life for "where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
More than that. If the prophet Jeremiah is right, then we need to recognise that "the heart is deceitful" so we will need to keep a watchful eye on our motives and desires.
In fact we need a heart transplant for only the pure in heart will see God.
But the really good news is that through trust in Christ, we are given a new heart of love for God and His Word.
I imagine that, if your heart is anything like mine, you will need regular visits to the cardiology department of Scripture for a check-up.
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