I can forget sometimes that, at root (and my intellectual self will constantly challenge me on this) the Christian way of living is about the heart. Believe it or not, I will cringe when I hear people say that, sometimes, because I fear that non-christians will then easily dismiss Christianity as simply a preference, like preferring vanilla to chocolate, the color blue over brown. There are legion reasonable, intelligent reasons for accepting Christianity as objectively TRUE.
But this post is not about those reasons. It is a reminder to me and to you that God has a heart and we are made in his image to have one too. This is a reminder that Jesus wants us to accept his love and grace and offer our love and devotion in return to Him. Only here can we find The Truth and find it to be the reason for living we’ve been searching for.
The heart is central. That I would even need to remind you of this only shows how far we have fallen from the life we were meant to live—or how powerful the spell has been. The subject of the heart is addressed in the Bible more than any other topic—more than “works” or “serve,” more than “believe” or “obey,” more than money and even more than worship. Maybe God knows something we’ve forgotten. But of course—all those other things are matters of the heart. Consider but a few passages:
Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. (Deut. 6:5) [Jesus called this the greatest of all the command-ments—and notice that the heart comes first.]
Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart. (1 Sam. 16:7)
Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Luke 12:34)
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. (Prov. 3:5)
Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You. (Ps. 119:11 NASB)
These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. (Matt 15:8)
For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. (2 Chron. 16:9)
–John Eldridge (Waking the Dead, 39-40)
