I pray that God will use the simple words of this week’s devotion to help meet the heart needs of those who read it.

How Is Your Heart?

Five years ago, we returned home from our first semester of teaching as missionary teachers. We had just sold our home and completed a busy day of packing up our belongings as we were preparing for the big move. I laid my head upon on my pillow, exhausted from a full day’s work, expecting sleep to come quickly. I closed my eyes and immediately knew something was VERY wrong.

My heart began to race. Not only was it suddenly pounding out of my chest, it was also out of rhythm. I didn’t need a doctor to tell me that, I could feel it. I called my dear friend who was a nurse and lived across the street and said, “I think I need you to bring your stethoscope and come listen to my heart.” It was beating so fast that she was having a hard time getting an accurate pulse read. Within an hour my husband had taken me to the emergency room where I was hooked up to monitors that reported every move. I watched my out-of-rhythm heart climb to over 170 beats per minute on the monitors. After hours of several different medications my heart finally began to respond, very slowly coming back down to a normal rate. However, the arrhythmia did not go away. The following day a medical procedure was needed to shock my heart back into its correct rhythm. From that day forward, I have needed to be disciplined to take medication daily in order to help keep my heart in a healthy rhythm.

Over the years I’ve learned that our spiritual heart can also suffer from arrhythmia. It runs a futile race when we allow the wrong things to take away our focus on God, or when our well-intended ministries start to put projects before people. We suffer being out of rhythm when we journey for days without the manna from His Word. We are no longer in balance when we don’t keep the doors and windows of our soul open to God and the leading of the Holy Spirit.

According to God’s Word, God clearly sees and knows when we have a healthy spiritual heart.

1 Samuel 16:7 But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

What is It that characterizes a heart that is tender towards God? Deuteronomy 6:5 states, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” Deuteronomy 10:12, “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,…”

Deuteronomy 27:10, “You shall therefore obey the voice of the LORD your God, keeping his commandments and his statutes, which I command you today.”  Deuteronomy 28:1 restates this verse, “And if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God, keeping his commandment and his statutes, which I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.”

How was it that a young shepherd boy developed such a heart for God? Was it because he was free from distraction while tending the family’s sheep? Did he choose to spend his time praising the God whom he served through song? Did he serenade the sheep by singing of the mercies of the LORD? What made his so heart tender that in 1 Samuel 13:14 God called David “a man after his own heart”?

How was it that King Josiah, an 8-year-old king of Israel, had a heart for God’s Word? This young king attempted to follow God’s Laws. 2 Kings tells of his life and his zest for reforming Israel as he continued to read and learn the commands of God.

How was it that in the midst of false prophets, true prophets of God had the courage to stand and proclaim God’s Word?  Living in a nation who had strayed from their one true God, these men were sensitive to God’s leading, responded to God’s Word, heard His voice, and proclaimed His truth – even when their own lives were at risk. Prophets such as Isaiah, clearly responded with a reverence for God. Isaiah 6:5 And I said; “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”  Isaiah chose to respond to God’s voice. Isaiah 6:8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”

The Bible clearly gives us the antidote for a sin sick heart. First and foremost, we must acknowledge our sins and ask Jesus for forgiveness that can come only through the price he paid for us on the cross. John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

The Bible also gives commands, or medicine, for when we awake to the realization that our heart is out-of-rhythm, or when it is beating too fast following the business of the world. The following are just a few of the Lord’s recommended medicines for a sick or out-of-rhythm heart:

• Love with all your heart, all your soul, and all your might.
• Fear the Lord and walk in his ways.
• Serve him will all our heart and soul.
• Obey the voice of the LORD our God.
• Keep his commandments and statutes.
• Faithfully obey the voice of the LORD.

Dear Jesus,

Make in me a healthy, spiritual heart. Help me to have the obedience to read your Word and realize how precious it is to my heart health. Help me to love your Word with all my heart, all my soul, and all my might.  Help me to love you and to show this love through praise, reverence, and awe.  Help me to love others and to put that love into action. Help me to be faithful to your voice and the prompting of Your Holy Spirit. Thank you for your tender mercies toward me and your grace that is all sufficient. Help me to see you in the business, the quietness, and the everyday moments of life. Draw me to you, that my spiritual heart will beat in-rhythm for you.

In Jesus precious name. Amen.

May your heart beat in-rhythm for Him throughout the coming weeks and years,

Linda