In His Word, God says a
lot about the “inside” part of us. I’m
talking about our thoughts, desires, beliefs, feelings, and motives. The Bible often calls this inner world our “heart”,
but sometimes it uses words like “mind”, “thoughts”, “desires”, or “inner being”.
Although a particular passage may be focusing on a certain aspect of our “heart”,
to some extent these words are interchangeable. Just the word “heart” appears
over 700 times in the Bible. This gives us a hint of how important our hearts
are. Considering this, God has put it on my heart to write a series of posts on
what God says about our hearts.
I thought I would begin
with an overview of some of the many truths we learn from the Bible about human
hearts.
While people are
concerned with outward appearances, God is more concerned with our hearts (1
Samuel 16:7). God knows, probes, and judges everything that is in our hearts,
including our secret thoughts (Psalm 7:9; Psalm 44:21). God will expose the motives of
people’s hearts (1 Corinthians 4:5).
Wicked people don’t think
about God (Psalm 10:4) and tell themselves that God is not real (Psalm 14:1). People’s
hearts become darkened when they don’t glorify God (Romans 1:21). Satan works
to steal God’s Word from people’s hearts, to blind them to the truth, and to
fill their hearts with evil (Luke 8:12, 2 Corinthians 4:4, Acts 5:3).
People sometime poison
(Acts 14:2) or trouble (Acts 15:24) the hearts of other people.
God is working to
recapture the hearts of people who have gone astray (Ezekiel 14:5). We are
saved by believing in our hearts the good news about Jesus (Romans 10:9). When
we are saved He writes His law on hour hearts
(Jeremiah 31:33). God pours His love into our hearts (Rom 5:5). God is in the
process of transforming us by renewing our minds (Romans 12:2).
A pure heart gives us
access to God (Psalm 24:3-4) and hiding God’s Word in our hearts protects us
from sin (Psalm 119:11). We should guard our hearts, because our actions come
from our hearts (Proverbs 4:23). God wants us to seek Him (Jeremiah 29:13) and
to love Him with all our heart (Matthew 22:37).
God’s thoughts are far
above our thoughts (Isaiah 55:9), yet in another sense we “have the mind of
Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16).
God wants us to be united
in mind and thought (1 Corinthians 1:10). We are called to make every thought obedient
to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5), to set our minds on things above (Colossians
3:1), and to think about good and pure things (Philippians 4:8).
God’s peace guards our
hearts (Phi 4:7) and His grace strengthens our hearts (Hebrews 13:9).
God calls us to love one
another deeply from our hearts (1 Peter 1:22). God uses us to encourage the
hearts of others (Colossians 4:8). We can pray for the hearts of others (Ephesians
1:18)!
With that last point in
mind, I would like to close this post with a prayer for our hearts:
Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us new hearts and
for pouring your love into our hearts! O Lord, help us to set our hearts on you
and to love you more than anything. Give
us pure hearts and transform us from the inside out. Fill our thoughts with
your truth. Fill our hearts with your praise. Please protect our hearts from
the evil lies of the devil and the poison of this world. Strengthen and encourage
our hearts. Help us to be united in our hearts and to love one another deeply.
And Lord, please use us to encourage the hearts of others. In Jesus Name, Amen.
Other posts on “Heart
Matters”:
Difficult Commands and Spiritual Disciplines
Hebrews 13:16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others . . .
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