A HEALTHY HEART
18th Sep 2024
Proverbs 4:23 says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”
At a physical level we pay special attention to our heart. Is it healthy and strong? Is our blood pressure too high or too low? We know that a healthy heart is essential to life.
This verse in Proverbs is not talking about our physical heart, but our spiritual heart. It begins “above all else”, so it is very important. Our heart is the centre of our emotions, thoughts and motivation.
Jesus said in Luke 6:45, “For out of the overflow of the heart the mouths speaks.” So by listening to what we say we can gauge the health of our hearts. Are our words positive, life giving and full of faith? Sometimes we can speak out negative and harmful words without thinking, and immediately say, “I didn’t mean that.” However, it was our heart speaking and we didn’t close our mouth quickly enough!
The people we have in our heart, and those for whom we care, we will pray for on a regular basis. In Philippians 1:4-7 Paul says, “In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy …. It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart.” We do not need a list to pray for our family and those close to us, because “they are in our hearts.”
In Hebrew 3:8 we are warned, “Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” We need to be responsive to what God is saying to us about our lives and our relationship to others, so that we do not harden our hearts and stop caring.
In the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:8, Jesus says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for thy shall see God.”
Today’s message is to encourage us to do a “heart check-up”. Do we have responsive hearts that are open to the promptings of God’s Spirit? Is our heart motivated to hear from God and act in love? Who is in our heart and in our prayers? Is our speech full of faith and words of encouragement?
by Charles Sibthorpe
