The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? “I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.” Jeremiah 17:9-10 (NIV)
A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones. Proverbs 14:30 (NIV)
We can be easily deluded by our own hearts, Amen? We are so prone to be swayed by the glitz and glamor of this loud world as well as the selfish desires and bents that battle within us seemingly always to win. How great a need we have to watch our own hearts as they will follow what we love the most. And God is what we are to love the most, Amen? Scripture tells us to set our hearts and minds on things above not on earthly things. Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount come to mind here: “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.”
The heart is spotlighted in Scripture, appearing just under 1,000 times. These frequent occurrences red flag us to take this repetition seriously. As the heart goes so the person. We obey acceptably when we obey from the heart. It is no wonder King David pleads with the Lord after his epic fall with Bathsheba in Psalms 51:10 to “Create in me a pure heart O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” A prayer we all should plead faithfully for. The word translated “create” here is from the Hebrew word “Bara” meaning to bring about, denoting God’s creativity. There is sufficient reason to believe that “Bara” denotes creating “ex nihilo” – out of nothing. Only God can change the leaning of the human heart – out of nothing. “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Take my heart, Lord, take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.” (Robert Robinson).
“The ultimate question,” writes Troxel, “will always be, What does your heart love most? What do you desire more? Where is your treasure?”
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19-21 (NIV)