Is It Time for a Heart Checkup?

Keeping one's heart in good shape is a major key in continuing to live. My primary care physician refers me to a cardiologist for an annual checkup because of a long family history of heart disease. Several weeks ago a long time friend had heart surgery to replace a valve in his heart. This week a new friend will undergo quadruple bypass surgery and a possible valve replacement in his heart. We all probably know one or more individuals who have mild to severe heart problems. As a result, we are usually very careful in making sure we keep our hearts functioning correctly. A heart checkup enables our doctors to detect problems early and to prescribe treatments.

While we are good about checking on our physical heart, what about on our spiritual heart. The Bible makes several statements about the use of and care of our spiritual heart. Perhaps the best known is found in Matthew 22:27 when Jesus responded to the question about what is the greatest commandment.

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all

your soul and with all your mind."

Jesus also instructed us about the way we value things results in the placement of our hearts in Matthew 6:19-21.

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust

destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves

treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where

thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is,

there your heart will be also."

There are many verses in the Bible regarding the spiritual heart. But one question we often overlook about our spiritual hearts is how do we keep them healthy? Again, we might suggest many possible ways to work toward a healthy spiritual heart, but in this article I am going to share what I recently reread in the Bible. These verses are found in Psalm 119:10-11 which many children have heard in Vacation Bible Schools.

"With my whole heart I seek You; let me not wander

from Your commandments. I have stored up Your Word

in my heart, that I might not sin against You."

When you analyze these two brief verses, you find a fairly simple prescription. Seeking God with our whole heart encompasses four basic steps:

1. Seek God through worship.

2. Seek God through prayer.

3. Seek God through reading the Bible.

4. Seek God through remembering what His Word has taught and commanded.

Then we see in these verses the purpose for keeping our spiritual hearts healthy - that we obey God by keeping His commandments or teachings and that we not sin (by the way, all sin is against God even though we often only focus on how it impacts other people). Failure to keep our spiritual hearts healthy leaves us open to being deceived by lies, deceit, and others activities that Satan perpetrates in our world.

A spiritual heart checkup doesn't involve a trip to the cardiologist, but it does involve time spent with the Lord. Only by His examination are we made aware of what is needed to bring our spiritual hearts into a healthy relationship with our Lord and Savior.

This week I encourage all of us to get a spiritual heart checkup.