Healthy Heart

Our inner-heart is such a a vast, amazing, and resilient creation by God. Our entire human existence is filtered through our hearts. Every decision, every thought, every emotion comes out of the heart. Our heart is in essence, what makes us, us. It is the core of our being and holds the definition of who we are. Our heart is capable of making our lives amazing. It also has the capability of making us not want to live. Our heart is able to suffer a multitude of violations, offenses, and pain while finding a way to cope and continue to survive. Psychology attempts to understand the mind, emotions, and reasoning of the heart. But even today, with all our intelligence and technology, psychology is still mostly theory and conjecture as to how things truly operate. No one has been able to concretely define and dissect the many, many layers and operations of the heart.

Our inner heart is a lot like our physical heart; everything that brings life flows through it. In the natural, if the heart stops working the entire body dies. In the same way, if there is an issue with our inner heart, every part of our lives will suffer. The natural heart pumps whatever is in it throughout the body. If we have poison or infection introduced into our bloodstream, it is only a matter of time before our heart pumps it to every part of our body. Our inner heart also pumps whatever is in it throughout our life. In the interest of staying alive, we not only need to have a healthy heart, we need to guard against harmful things being introduced into the body that can be spread by the heart. "Guard your heart with all diligence for out of it flow the issues of life." Proverbs 4:23 Guarding our heart does not mean to build walls around it so it is protected. Guarding our heart has everything to do with making sure what is already inside our hearts is healthy to our lives. If you just close up your heart with everything that hurt it - anger, unforgiveness, pain - those things will stay in there and be "pumped" throughout your entire life. You will make your decisions tainted by those things. Your communication, thoughts, and emotions will all be filtered through those things that are locked up in your heart.

"The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? I the Lord search the heart...." Jeremiah 17:9

In our quest to have healthy inner hearts, it is important that we invite God's presence into the mix. God gives us the responsibility to care for our hearts, but not the tools to see the real problems. Your heart will lie to you. It cannot be trusted. It will deceive you, manipulate you, and cause you to not deal with things for self-preservation. Only God truly knows what is in it and how to fix it. If you desire a healthy heart, you will invite Holy Spirit to search out things that are in there. Allow Him to confront past hurts, hidden motives and agendas, and pride. He wants to partner with you to keep your heart healthy. "Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:32 If you desire to be free, you must be open to the truth. God is called the Spirit of Truth for a reason. He is the way, the truth, and the life. You must make a decision to be best friends with the truth and embrace it, even if it is painful or inconvenient. You will never regret it. Basically it all boils down to trust. Do you trust God with your heart? “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit." Jeremiah 17:7-8 Here's your homework: Take a moment, invite Holy Spirit to speak to you, and ask yourself the following question. Take the first thing that comes to mind and talk to God about it. What do I believe to be true, that keeps me from trusting You?

Happy growing!

Sarah Dawn