Heart Check

Have you thought about your heart lately? Our physical heart has a huge job in keeping us alive! Our heart is constantly pumping blood through our body. Our heart works really hard to make sure our blood is flowing as it should. We can keep our physical heart healthy through exercise, eating healthy foods, and limiting stress. When healthy choices are made, we can lower the risk for heart disease to happen. If we work really hard to take care of our physical heart, why not work that much harder to take care of our spiritual heart?! The word heart is mentioned many times in Scripture. In Mark 12:30, it talks about how we should love God with our all. It first mentions we should love God with all of our heart. All means whole and not lacking anything. It means to be fully committed and giving it everything you have. It's more than saying we love God in words, but it must be shown in our actions. Jesus talks about the religious leaders in Matthew 15:8 and says how they honor Him with their words, but their heart is far from Him. We definitely don't want that to be said of us! We can hold on to a lot in our heart, so we have to make sure what's in our heart lines up with God's Word and is spiritually healthy for us. Anything not helping us move forward needs to go. Holding on to the past and trying to relive it will keep us from moving forward. Holding on to the what-ifs and what could have been will keep us from moving forward. Looking at what everyone else has and comparing ourselves to them will keep us from moving forward. Every day, we have to ask God to help us keep those wrong things out of our heart. We also have to make sure we are not surrounding ourselves with people or in environments where those wrong thoughts can come up and grow in our heart. Our heart and mind do connect and affect each other. You know how a thought we're thinking comes out of our mouth and is spoken aloud. You see, what's on the inside of our heart will eventually show up on the outside. Our behavior and attitudes will definitely reveal what's in our heart. That's why it's so important that we keep out revenge, unforgiveness, complaining, jealousy, and comparison among other things. We can think of what we hold in our heart as treasure. Treasure is something that is special and valuable to us. Let's make sure we have good treasure in our heart. At the beginning part of Matthew 12:35, it says, "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things." I don't know about you, but I want good things to come out of my heart! That's why the state of our spiritual heart is just as important as our physical heart. We need to ask God to help us have the good, so the wrong can go out. We need to ask God to help us get the bad treasure out quickly. If it lingers too long, there could be severe consequences. Love, peace, joy, thankfulness, forgiveness, kindness, humility and faithfulness are the good treasure we want found in our heart. When these are found in the inside of our heart, they will show up in our lives in a mighty way. So we have to check our heart real good. Don't forget the corners and little parts that may get overlooked. Let's do a heart check daily!