A Christian’s Heart - Introduction

A Christian’s Heart - Introduction

As we begin this New Year, I’d like to share with you what our vision and goal will be for 2023, and what we’ll be looking at in our time together. And it all begins with an inside work through the type of heart Christians are to possess. And what I’d like to do in this introduction is give you a little taste of what this entails as we look at three things, I consider to be tantamount for anyone who calls themselves Christian of the type of heart they should have. And then through this series we’ll look at even more qualities in greater detail.

Now, why is it important to have such a heart? Well, the Bible says that it’s the condition of the heart that determines who we are (Proverbs 4:23), and how we relate to others (Luke 6:45).

But before we go any further, I think it’s important that we determine what is the heart.

Medically speaking, the heart is a muscular organ that pumps life giving blood to all parts of the human body through the body’s circulatory system of various blood vessels (arteries, veins, and capillaries). This then provides the oxygen and nutrients that our bodies need to survive.

A heart that is healthy pumps the right amount of blood at a rate that allows the human body to function as God created it to be.

When our hearts fail to pump the way they should, when disease attacks it, or our arteries become clogged preventing blood from flowing at its optimal rate, then we are faced with various health issues and possibly even death.

So, I think it’s safe to say that the human heart is one of the most important organs God placed in the human body.

But I think it’s also safe to say that a person’s heart is also one of the most important spiritual organs God has given to us as well. But the heart that I am talking about isn’t the human organ. Rather it is the spiritual part of us where emotions and desires reside.

This spiritual heart is seen from the very beginning when the Bible tells us that we have been made in both the image and likeness of the Lord God Himself (Genesis 1:26). And so, God has a heart. But it’s not the physical organ that resides within the human body, because as Jesus said to the woman at the well that God is spirit, and those who worship Him do so in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). But God has a heart, and it’s one that can be broken over our sins, and it is His heart we are to follow.

In fact, it’s this seeking after the heart of God that the Lord commends and is seeking amongst His people. He is seeking a people whose hearts are seeking after His heart.

Now, God tells those who teach His word that He wants them to have His heart so that they can rightly teach His word.

“I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.” (Jeremiah 3:15 NKJV)

King David was commended by God for having such a heart. Look at God’s testimony of David.

“He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.’” (Acts 13:22 NKJV)

And so, we are to be actively seeking the heart of God.

Now, in our natural condition, which is the condition known as sin, the heart of man isn’t even lined up with God’s heart. Instead, our hearts are evil, wicked, filled with deceit and treachery. So wicked and so treacherous is the human heart that we are easily deceived by it, but not so God, He knows it well. In fact, He’s the only one who knows our heart’s true condition.

Through the prophet Jeremiah, the Lord said, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart.” (Jeremiah 17:9-10a NKJV)

The Lord is saying, “I know the heart, I know what’s in there. You don’t, but I do.”

This may well be why King David prayed, “Search me, O God, and know my heart.” (Psalm 139:23a NKJV)

Jesus knew this about the human heart as well, being God and all; therefore, He didn’t give Himself over to anyone. It says that He didn’t commit Himself to anyone because He knew what is in man (John 2:24-25).

Look at Jesus’s explanation of the human heart, as He fully reveals its condition.

“For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.” (Mark 7:21-23 NKJV)