Heart Trouble
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The heart is a hollow, muscular organ that pumps the blood through the circulatory system by rhythmic contraction and dilation. The human heart has four chambers with two atria and two ventricles.
We all know what the heart is, yet we rarely think about it unless it gives us trouble. Yet heart trouble is one of the most serious kinds of physical trouble one can face as it often leads to a very quick and sudden death. The Bible uses the word “heart” over 750 times in the Bible, yet only uses it twice in actual reference to the physical pump in our chest.
Heart as used most often in the Bible is talking about the authentic person. One’s heart is where desires, feelings, passions, thoughts, understanding, will take place. The heart is where our spiritual thinking and activity takes place. The heart is who a person really is.
Often in the Bible there are evil hearts that lead one away from God or become a stumbling block to one who knows God. The Bible speaks of the proud heart (Proverbs 21:4), idolatrous heart (Ezekiel 14:4), a heart turned away from God (1 Kings 11:3-4), a hard heart (2 Chr 36:13), stubborn heart (Psalm 81:12), deceitful heart (Jeremiah 17:9), backsliding heart (Prov 14:14).
Yet the Bible also teaches of characteristics of a good heart. The Bible teaches of clean hearts (Psalm 51:10), hearts that fear the Lord (Deut 5:29), broken and contrite heart (Psalm 51:17), tender heart (2 Kings 22:19), steadfast heart (Psalm 57:10), an upright heart (Psalm 32:11), a heart after God’s own heart (Psalm 13:14).
Yet there is more than just good and evil when dealing with the heart. There are varying degrees of strength when dealing with heart as well. Some are described as being “double hearted” or of a divided heart (Hosea 10:2) meaning that they served God sometimes and turned away from Him at other times. The Bible also describes a “perfect heart” (1 Chr 28:9) or a heart that is entirely devoted to God. Purity in heart is also taught many times in the Bible (Ps 24:4; Mt 5:8; Ja 4:8). A pure heart is a heart that has one purpose and one devotion without a mixture of devotions.
So the question remains, “where does our heart lie?”. Is our heart wholly and completely devoted to God? We know that God knows our heart. God knows how pure and devoted our heart is to Him. God knows often times better than we do because sometimes our heart is deceived. If our heart is devoted to God as it should be, then our actions will follow our heart. As Christ has told us, evil we do comes from the heart (an evil heart) (Matthew 15:19).
Deuteronomy 10:12 says, “And now Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but ot fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul.”
