How we behave is a direct result of our heart health. In the last post we started talking about how people around us would characterize our “aroma.” Good or bad. I’ve had the privilege of knowing a few cardiologists. Each of them would tell you, “as goes the heart, so goes the rest of the body.” Heart health is important!
Jesus said,
“No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks” (Luke 6:43-45 NIV84, emphasis added).
Our words and actions are an overflow of what is stored up in our hearts. The prophet Jeremiah pointed out that “the heart is deceitful above all things, and beyond cure, who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9 NIV84). Apart from an internal renovation project, our hearts are doomed—leading towards, stinky, dead lives.
I was raised on a healthy (or unhealthy, really) dose of religious guilt, and was taught that it was hard work and actions that would make me pleasing to God. However, the Scriptures we’ve just looked at teach us:
- Our hearts are the source of our behaviors; and
- Our hearts are sick
We are lost causes, and the “aroma” of our lives are bound to be odorous!
Another prophet, Ezekiel, speaking around the same time as Jeremiah, spoke of a future hope—that God would be changing people’s hearts!
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26 NIV84).
Ezekiel spoke of a time when Jesus would give us His Holy Spirit, who would give us a new heart, and begin the process of transforming us from the inside out.
Paul, the founder of churches all over Asia and the known world of the time said, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV84)
If we have Jesus, we can be sure that God is working to change our heart, and is making us new!
Are there “heart issues” that are a common denominator for any smelly relational issues of your life?
Are there emotions that seem to erupt unexpectedly and with great energy that you wish God would address?
Have you come to the point of prayer and dependence on God for these areas of the heart?