“Houston, we have a heart problem.”
Scroll through any social media platform. Facebook (for my Millennials), Instagram…those are the only two I have. But, scroll through any of those social media platforms and you’ll see Memes, twitter screenshots, advertisements, reels, tik toks all about relationships, traumas, triggers, etc. We hear talk of toxic people, toxic relationships, self-care, generational curses. All of these are real and serious issues and they all have one thing in common: the heart.
What Is The Heart?
When I think of the heart, the first thing that comes to mind is love. The next thing that may come to my mind is relationships. But since my desire is not to give anyone love or relationship advice, but to invite everyone on this journey of emotional purity/purity of heart, I’m not going to focus on what I think the heart is. I’m going to focus on what God, through His word, says about the heart. According to Bible Hub, the Hebrew definition for the heart is: inner man, mind, will, heart. According to GotQuestions.org, “the heart is that spiritual part of us where our emotions and desires dwell.”
Now, I know we all want to think that we have hearts of gold. That our intentions are pure. That we wouldn’t hurt a fly. However, the truth of the matter is we have dirty, dark hearts and if that fly caught you on an off day, you probably would hurt him. Might even kill him.
The Bible says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” For me, recently, this meant I had (and have to daily, which is incredibly humbling) to accept that I have some serious heart issues, which God showed me through His grace. As a human being, the Bible tells me that my heart is deceitful. My heart can not be trusted. So tying all of that together, I am learning: my emotions and desires can not be trusted because my heart is deceitful.
Well that just sounds terribly hopeless, doesn’t it?! If I can’t trust my emotions and my desires, what am I supposed to do, God?! Be a robot?! Should I deny every impulse? Live as an ascetic monk? (The answer is no, but I’m going to get to that eventually.)
Jesus also mentioned something about the heart and you may not like what He said, but the thing about Jesus is that He loves us enough to tell us the truth even when it hurts.
And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
-Sourced from www.biblehub.com Mark 7:20-23 ESV
Just reading that scripture makes me cringe. I have these things in my heart and Jesus tells me that these things defile me, these things make me dirty. (zirty, you heard me?) Again, we have dirty, dark hearts.
I don’t like this.
What to do what this dirty, dark heart?
I kinda asked God this question a few years ago. And after 6 1/2 years of walking with God, I can tell you confidently that there’s nothing I can do with this dirty, dark heart of mine except trust God with it. I’ve tried willing myself into emotional purity, beating myself into it and neither of these things worked. I am learning that God wants my heart so that He can replace it, clean it, heal it, and make it thrive. But I don’t want you to take my word for it. I want you to take His.
- God wants to replace our hearts with better ones. I am learning that God only wants to rid us of that which takes us away from Him. He wants to get rid of our ungodliness not our uniqueness.
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules
Sourced from Biblehub.com Ezekiel 36:26-27
2. God wants to clean our hearts
I love how David saw the need for God to purge his dirty, dark heart after he had sex with Bathsheba, killed her husband, took her as his wife and tried to cover it all up. I need this too!
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Sourced from Biblehub.com Psalm 51:10 ESV
3. God wants to heal our hearts. He cares about our brokenness and He is willing to heal us and our hearts if we let Him.
“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”
“Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me and I shall be saved, for you are my praise.”
Sourced from Biblehub.com Psalm 147:3 & Jeremiah 17:14
4. God wants our hearts to thrive. The best medicine for our hearts is to trust in God.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”
“Blessed is the man who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”
Sourced from Biblehub.com Provers 3:5-6 & Jeremiah 17:7-8
I want to trust God to replace, clean, heal, and make my heart thrive. How about you?
Love & Light,
Kourtney Naomi
