What is the Spiritual Condition of Your Heart?

What is the Spiritual Condition of Your Heart?

 

Good Morning Friends,

 

Our minister at Moorings has a physical heart condition. He went in for a procedure earlier this year and is much better. But about a half a million people die every year in America with the cause being Coronary Heart Disease. It can be a serious situation. Light heartedly the doctor has told him no more Doritos. Maybe you might feel sorry for him. Well I like Doritos too so I would understand your concern, but the truth is that you and I can have a heart condition as well. And it might be a much more serious spiritual heart condition.  The Lord has allowed the medical field to learn how to physically repair hearts. But no medical doctor can suture pangs of the heart that are of a spiritual nature. So this morning we are going to have a checkup of sorts as we ask each other… What is the Spiritual Condition of Your Heart?

 

Scripture:
¹⁹I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live,

 

Deuteronomy 30:19 (NRSV)

 

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

 

Proverbs 4:23 (NRSV)

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

 

8Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

 

Matthew 5:8 (NRSV)

 

But what does it say, ‘The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);

 

Romans 10:8-10 (NRSV)

 

Message: God has a lot to say about our hearts, the seat of our emotions, not that organ in our chest that pumps blood. What is clear in the reading is that the condition of our hearts determine the course of our lives. Friends, there is nothing more important than one’s inner life. Here our life is transformed by God’s love. Here we can be rescued from certain death. It all depends how we react in the world. And here in the world we can help others choose life or nudge them closer to death. So the heart of today’s scripture is really about a message of salvation for those called into His service. It should help us as it helped Paul to never lose the wonder of having been called by God, to having been saved by Jesus, to having had a life transformed by God’s love. That is nature of a healthy spiritual heart. Thankfully our Pastor at Moorings has this kind of heart. So today’s scripture is really about the possibility of being rescued from certain death and how we react in the world to save another. Here Paul confronts us all with how absolutely useless we are if we do not share the Gospel of our salvation with others. Truly we have failed to live our lives with reverence for the sacrifice made if we do not share our gratefulness and joy at having been saved spiritually as well as physically. It is really simple but not necessarily easy. Somehow it is all tied together for God will accept you and save you if you share your belief. This is a sign of love. This is a sign of a healthy spiritual heart. Paul knew that it was a tragedy for believers to live one’s life as a spiritual pauper never sharing the rich love we have received. When we check our hearts this is what we have to check for unless the heart is exercised it can become hard and rotten and slow. So the love of God in Jesus shared is the true test of a healthy spiritual heart.

 

Pray we have a heart on fire, healthy enough to pump the blood of life into the body of believers. Pray we take care of our emotions avoiding damage to our hearts. Pray we develop self-control. Pray we choose to do the right things. Pray we keep our hearts pure. Pray we guard our hearts for the Kingdom while at the same time risking enough to share them. Pray our hearts are inspired by the true power of the love of God. Pray the Holy Spirit speaks wonderful things into our hearts. Pray our hearts melt, mesmerized and inspired by the love of Christ. Pray our souls are filled to overflowing from the depth and breadth and height of every experience as an act of love that is more than love because God has joined in the glory of its vision. Pray our hearts beat faster to the touch of the divine. Pray we love more each day. Pray we praise God, our Father, for the wonderful gift of the salvation of a transformed heart.

 

Blessings,

 

John Lawson