A continuation of “In My Heart Means What” (see Menu). Previously referencing Charles Swindoll’s thoughts on the “hows and whats” we put into our heart, a friend and follower of my blog added this comment (See his full comments below the first Heart blog). From another perspective though, I do think “the heart” much of the time does mean strong emotions or feelings running alongside the will and conscience. We all know “just going through the motions” without some sense of affection or desire toward God is an unhealthy place to be over an extended period of time. So David prays, “Create in me a clean heart, O God. . . . Restore to me the joy of Your salvation.” His heart has chosen sin (will and conscience) but part of that is because his affections (loves, desires, emotions) have been drawn away from God. His heart needs purifying but also “warming up,” so to speak—He wants to love God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength—all of it together.
This is a great segway to a deeper Scriptural understanding of what “in your heart” means and how you influence what goes into your heart or comes out of your heart. Following these thoughts with what Jesus had to say about it we learn: …….. “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.” Mark 7:20-23 NIV
You can run, but you can’t hide, from your heart that is. Paul David Tripp, in New Morning Mercies says this about Mark 7: Jesus is making a very powerful point. You don’t defeat the disaster of sin by separating yourself from sinful people, places or experiences, though that may be a good thing. To be continued…………
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What Do We Really Want? 
Love that last point, Steve. I’ve heard it said this way: “Wherever you go, there you are.” You can change your circumstances (relationships, etc.), but that doesn’t necessarily mean there’s any heart change going on. Reminds me too that separation or isolation, while possibly removing a sinful influence, can also pose the danger of removing me from the very objectivity I need to be able to see my own sin. Sometimes when we are “escaping” the sins of others, we are in reality escaping the need to deal with our own sins, temptations, etc. Takes wisdom and discernment, but to your whole point, it’s a heart matter.
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You are dead on. Thanks for the comment, always appreciate your input Bill.
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I like the idea of looking at King David when talking about our hearts. He is described in scripture as a man after God’s own heart (1st Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22). I’ve always taken that to mean that David clearly understood what matters to God and what doesn’t. Kind of a unique Spirit gifted understanding of God’s sovereign will. Apparently God saw that quality in David (or more accurately implanted this quality into David) when he was very young (1st Samuel 16 & 17).
The great thing about having David as the model for our heart’s is that we have so much introspective writing from him in scripture. His writing show us that despite being an absolute rock star at just about everything he attempted he was humble, reverent, trusting, loving, emotional (maybe even bi-polar), obedient, faithful, repentant, and most of all completely dependent on God (and God’s ways) to keep his heart right.
I always try to remind myself that Solomon in all of his wisdom was never seen as a man after God’s own heart, but David in his complete dependence on God was.
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Ric, Can’t tell you how much I appreciate this. We went thru Samuel 1 in Men’s Bible Study not so long ago. It was awesome. We are on 3rd lesson of Samuel 2 right now. Hope you might choose to be a follower of my blog, more followers, more reach to this blog ministry. Thx
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