Here is a continuation of my journey through “Waking the Dead” by John Eldredge. I hope you find this as enlightening and I do.
Proverbs 4:23 “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” The tin man from the Wizard of Oz understood just how important the heart is. His body had been turned into complete tin and he lost his heart in the process. He had been standing around a whole year before Dorothy came by and gave him some oil. He said, “It was a terrible thing to undergo, but during the year I stood there I had time to think that the greatest loss I had known was the loss of my heart. While I was in love I was the happiest man on earth; but no one can love who has not a heart, and so I am resolved to ask Oz to give me one.” The Enemy knows how vital your heart is and he is bent on its destruction. If he can disable or deaden your heart then he has foiled God’s plan of creating a world where love reigns. For far too long we have seized upon efficiency, busyness, and productivity as the life we live. We are sleepwalking and in order to find the right way we must return to the heart.
The heart is central to EVERYTHING. The fact that we need to be reminded of this shows just how successful the Enemy has been at making us forget the life God has in store for us. I challenge you to find another topic that’s mentioned more in the Bible than the heart. Jesus said the greatest commandment was to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” Matthew 22:37 “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7 “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Luke 12:34 “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” Matthew 15:8 We all know the heart can feel so many different emotions, both good and bad. It can be merry, cowardly, valiant, proud, whole, divided, upright, perverse, and so much more.
In Proverbs 4:23 we are urged to “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” It is the very center of our existence, that which separates us from other species. Why are so many people dissatisfied with their jobs or their life? Why do so many marriages fail today? Why are so many people struggling with depression, discouragement, and addiction? It’s because they’ve lost their heart. God places the heart as the central of the Bible and He placed it in the center of our bodies for a reason. In order to live a life fully alive we must make our heart central again.
Now I am going to make a distinction between your mind and your heart. Your heart knows and wrestles with realities: God has heard your prayer, your best friend is getting married tomorrow, you are now and always have been loved. Your mind processes information and abstractions: water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit, 2+2=4. The mind takes in and processes information, but for the most part it remains indifferent in our lives. Your mind may tell you it’s 2 a.m. and your roommate hasn’t come back to the room. Your heart wonders if this is cause for worry or not. “The heart lives in far more bloody and magnificent realities of living and dying and loving and hating.” Sometimes extremely intelligent people live detached from life because they live with their mind. People confuse them because they can’t comprehend the emotions others are experiencing.
Some people would equate their heart with emotion and let it make a wreck of their lives without stopping to consider whether it was a good idea to do so. Equating heart with emotion is the same nonsense as saying that love is just a feeling. While to some extent it is, it is also so much more. Could you imagine the emotions Jesus experienced before He went to the cross? He was man so he was definitely afraid, probably even more so knowing that the fate of the world was laid on His shoulders. “But in the hour of his greatest trial, his love overcame his fear of what loving would cost Him.” Emotions are the voice of the heart, a voice. A mind may stay detached, but we experience life and its fullness through our hearts which can express itself in many ways.
For every decision we’ve ever made we will give our stated reason for doing it and then we’ll have our real reason which is our motive. You may flatter your teacher or boss because they’re about to grade your test or give you a review. You remembered your anniversary because you love your spouse or because you were afraid of the consequences of not remembering. What’s unnerving about the Day of Judgment is this: “He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts.” 1 Corinthians 4:5b
This was the point of the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 5:20 He said, “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will not enter the Kingdom of God.” How could we possibly live up to the “model citizen” that the Pharisees were? On the outside they were “model citizens”, but on the inside they were the biggest hypocrites. Everything they did was to impress others by their righteousness yet their hearts were far from God. “A person’s character is determined by his motives, and motive is always a matter of the heart.” God doesn’t judge us based on our looks, intelligence, or our money; He judges us by our hearts.
Repeatedly throughout the Gospel Jesus refers to the heart as the place where we do our deepest thinking. The Great Modern Mistake is that “the mind equals reason and the heart equals emotion.” This is complete crap. Solomon is remembered as the wisest man to ever live and when God gave him the choice of anything he wanted, he asked for a wise and discerning heart. Our deepest thoughts are held in our hearts. Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God…it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” It did not say the feelings of the heart; it said the thoughts and attitudes. If you have a fear of heights, no amount of reasoning will convince you to go bungee jumping. It isn’t a rational fear, but rather something you can’t really explain. “It is the thoughts and intents of the heart that shape a person’s life.” “For if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified…” Romans 10:10-9 Saving comes from the heart and is the dwelling place of our true beliefs.
Our heart also stirs many things inside of us such as memories, creativity, and most importantly courage. It takes courage to love, to trust someone with your life, to believe in what you can’t see, and to follow Christ. “He shall say: ‘Hear, O Israel, today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not be terrified or give way to panic before them.’” Deuteronomy 20:3 “Success or failure can be pretty well predicted by the degree to which the heart is fully in it.” The battle for our hearts is going to take everything we have.
Many people have wondered what the purpose of living is and how they can be truly happy. Jesus flat out told us this in Scripture: love God and love your neighbor. It’s amazing that this is such a simple thing yet we keep searching for other stuff to fill our lives. Let me ask you a question “Is it possible to love without your heart?” I really don’t believe it is and it is essential to fight for your heart. Especially in the past century, humans have become extremely efficient. How much have we grown in love though? Honestly, we’ve probably grown away from love and that’s why people are so unsatisfied. To listen to God, you must listen with your heart. To love God, you must love Him with all your heart. You won’t live the life God has in store for you if you don’t live from the heart.
I keep on talking about your heart, but perhaps you are still a bit confused on what exactly your heart is. Every time you hear the word heart in the Bible, you should think of it as saying “me.” My heart is me. The real me. Your heart is you. The deepest, truest you. Christ didn’t come into this world to die for an idea, He came to die for a person, you. Ask people why they think Christ came into the world and you could find a ton of answers. “He came to bring world peace.” “He came to teach us how to love.” “He came to die so that we might go to heaven.” While these answers have a partial truth, they still miss the point. Jesus quoted from Isaiah this “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed.” Luke 4:18
I’ll put that into plain English for you. “God has sent me on a mission. I have some great news for you. God has sent me to restore and release something. And that something is you. I am here to give you back your heart and set you free.” This is why the glory of God is man fully alive. The fact that we’ve overlooked this truth for so long is just plain evil. The war we are in would explain such a great loss. This is the last thing the Enemy wants you to know. “Make them so busy, they ignore the heart. Would them so deeply, they don’t want a heart. Twist their ideology, so they despise the heart. Take away their courage. Make intimacy with God impossible for them.” This is the Enemy’s strategy and we need to be aware of it if we’re going to fight it. Without your heart you can’t have God, love, faith, purpose, or life.
If you have any questions, prayers requests, or just want to talk, that’s what I’m here for. My hope and prayer is that you will live from the heart and fully alive.
In love,
Bill
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