The first Friday in the month of February has been designated as “Wear Red” day to raise awareness of Women’s heart health issues. Apparently, heart disease is the number one killer of women. Several moves ago, don’t judge me, it’s how I remember the details of my life; I worked as a receptionist in a heart clinic. A few details have managed to remain in my memory regarding that experience.
First of all, if the patient is having chest pain they do not need an appointment with the cardiologist, which may not be possible to schedule for weeks, they need to go to the emergency room. STAT! Do not pass go, do not collect $200, go to the emergency room!
The second thing that I remember about the heart is how closely it is tied to the patient’s emotional well-being. Nearly, every patient who had heart surgery struggled with depression following that experience.
Valentine’s Day will be celebrated next week, so there are hearts literally everywhere. When God wants to get my attention…well, He doesn’t let me escape the message.
So here it is, when was the last time you checked your heart? Having a physical heart checkup is not a bad idea for someone “my age”. The number of old classmates who have begun having heart issues is alarming. Y’all need to stop that!
However, this is more spiritual than physical. The question is, “Have I let my heart become hard?”
Did you know that the word “heart” is used over 800 times in the Bible? There is only one way to know the truth about the state of your heart, and that is to take it to God, the heavenly cardiologist. We lie to ourselves about ourselves. Jeremiah 17 says,
“9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately
sick; who can understand it?
10 “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according
to his ways,
according to the fruit of his deeds.”
If you need a New Testament reference, 1 Thessalonians 2:4, “but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts.”
When you say with the writer of Psalm 139: 23-24, “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” It can become a painful procedure.
Throughout the scriptures, we see the dangers of hardening one’s heart. Pharaoh and others hardened their hearts toward God, and very bad things happened. But what if we feel our heart is soft toward God, but not toward another person? What if our experiences of being repeatedly hurt and wounded by someone leaves us feeling justified in hiding behind the callouses we have allowed to form toward them?
There is that annoyingly convicting verse. Matthew 25:40, “And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers,you did it to me.’” Or as James says, judgment is without mercy to those who have shown no mercy.
Wait a minute, if we don’t hate the person, if we can say with a sincere heart that we love them and forgive them, by the grace of God and an act of our will, isn’t that enough? Aren’t we justified in protecting ourselves from further harm by not allowing them to get close enough to our heart to hurt it again? ([i])
A hard heart cannot be wounded, it is tough, nothing gets through, rhinoceros hide.
A soft heart is vulnerable, can be wounded, bleeds easily.
Ezekiel 36:26 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
God! It’s like you are asking me to live with a continually broken heart! And the still small voice whispers back, “Like Mine.”
Psalms 34:18, “The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”
Friends, who has your heart gotten hard toward? If you are willing to let Him, the heavenly heart surgeon will remove that heart of stone. It is painful, it doesn’t feel safe, and it may take some time to adjust to this new way of living.
Jesus job description in Isaiah says, “he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted”.
Change
my heart oh God
Make it ever true
Change my heart oh God
May I be like You
[i] I know there are levels of toxic relationships where distance is a physical safety issue. God will have to give you the wisdom to protect yourself or your family in those situations. That is not what I am referring to here.