Heart Matters

Old & New Hearts

And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.

Ezekiel 36:26

There are over 800 references in the bible about the heart; If it's mentioned so much then I figure God's trying to get our attention! What has been coming to me of late is what a critical role our hearts play in our very existence; how the physical can affect the spiritual and vice versa. The heart is a fragile yet powerful organ;

Damage to the heart can impair how we live, but restoration of the heart can help us to thrive.

Contents of the Heart

 God said he will give us a new heart, one of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26); Solomon advises us to guard it diligently, as the issues of life spring from it (Proverbs 4:23); Matthew and Luke tell us that good things will come out of the good treasure of a man's heart; evil will come out of the evil treasure of an evil man's heart (Matthew 12:35, Luke 6:45); Psalm 44:21 tells us that God knows the secrets of every heart (wow!) and David asked God to create a clean heart and renew a right spirit in him (Psalm 51:10).

The scripture above from Ezekiel 36:26 is when God was speaking about renewing/restoring Israel; Israel had become unclean in God's sight and defiled the land due to their sinful ways and deeds. God said, "to Me their way was like the uncleaness of a woman in her customary impurity" (Ezekiel 36:17). Yikes! I think we recall scriptures in Leviticus 18:19 and Leviticus 15:25 that speak of the separation that took place when women were on their monthly cycles. This was another level though, because God was speaking to all His chosen people, not just to women. In verse 18, we then see what God does to them due to their rebellious ways!

Conditions of the Heart

One of the things I have found myself doing over the years is to sense when my heart changes or becomes hardened.

Different circumstances can cause for our hearts to grow hard and cold; this can happen in a moment or over a lifetime.

I have been tested more over the past few years and found myself in humbling situations literally crying out to God to help me with my heart. Times of prayer, worship and within church gatherings have been good litmus tests for the state of my heart; the more detached I was, the less pliable and receptive I became to the things and people of God. I began to ask Holy Spirit to reveal what was going on, why wasn't I able to go deeper in His presence and connect? The answer was invariably the same; it was a heart matter.

There was 'gunk' that needed to be removed from my heart such as unforgiveness, regret, and disappointment; roots that needed to be plucked up, such as fear, people pleasing, trauma and idolatry. 

The ground needed to be over-turned, and new seeds of joy, peace and love needed to be sown for my heart to become softened again.

The Journey

The interesting thing is that we see more clearly once we truly encounter God.  We're the same person but our responses become different; more refined I suppose.  We can become softer, gentler, kinder, peaceful and generally more joyful.

Heart matters truly matter to God

As we continue to bring our hearts before Him, he will create clean hearts in us; renewing and restoring us so that we can love, so that we can live and so that we can be a blessing to others.