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Heart Matters-July 26, 2020

Matters of the Heart. Very important to consider.

Monday Morning Devotion-July 26, 2020

 

Heart Matters

 

Wherever your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will also be.  Matthew 6:21

 

     Sometimes we take for granted just how important our heart is.  We wake up each

morning and go on our way because our heart continues to beat.  It always has or we wouldn't

be here.  We don't give it much thought because we are used to it doing its job; unless something different happens that we are not accustomed to feeling.  Then our attention is directed to our heart.  That's when we truly realize how much our heart matters.

            A couple of years ago that "something different" happened to me.  What I had attributed to allergies turned out to be two nearly blocked arteries in my heart.  That got my attention.  Then, above all else, the importance of a sound heart became real to me.

            Now here's the beauty of that story.  Through the miracle of modern medicine and the advanced knowledge concerning heart matters, my cardiologist was able to correct the problem by inserting a couple of stents.  Incredibly, it was outpatient surgery.  Was in the hospital at 7 a.m. and out at 3 p.m. with instructions to take it easy for a day, then go back to normal activities.

            Since that time, I have walked 1,665 miles---601 walks---and with that and the medicine I was prescribed to take I feel just fine.  Thank you, Lord.

            I've thought about all that a lot and am fully confident as to how it all played out.  Simply the outcome was in God's hands.  He was in control all the way!

            Mark Batterson, in a devotion entitled "The Tribe of the Transplanted" talked about a National Prayer Breakfast he attended where the speaker was Senator Bill Frist.  Prior to his tenure in the Senate, Frist had been a thoracic surgeon and performed over 150 heart transplants.

            Frist talked, in reverent tones, about the moment when a heart has been grafted into a new body and all the surgical team can do is wait and hope it begins to beat.  At that point the success of the entire operation is in God's hands.  Nothing else man can do. 

            It was at this point in his talk that Frist "stopped speaking in medical terms and started speaking in spiritual terms.  He almost seemed at a loss for words as he described that miraculous moment when a heart beats in a new body for the first time.  He called it a mystery."

            Batterson writes about this marvel of modern medicine that goes beyond what medicine can explain.  He says: "The heart has a mind of its own.  Studies suggest that the heart secretes its own brain-like hormones and has cellular memory.  A heart transplant isn't just physical, it's metaphysical.  Heart transplant recipients don't just receive a new organ, they receive cellular memories."

            Charles Siebert, author of A Man After His Own Heart, wrote that transplant recipients don't just receive a new heart, but along with it that new heart, they receive whole new sensory responses, cravings, and habits."

            The way we live comes from our hearts.  Batterson says: "When you give your heart to Christ, Christ gives His heart to you.  And you become a part of the tribe of the transplanted.  This new heart gives you a new appreciation for life."

            What we do comes from our heart but there's action and decisions that go along with that.  Dr Charles Stanley says: "Sometimes we believe that if God would just give us the desires of our hearts, we would be okay. But just because you get to the border of the Promised Land, that doesn't mean your problems will suddenly disappear.  In fact, more often than not the opposite is true."

            The Israelites made this mistake.  They thought they had it made when they escaped Egypt and slavery.  They were headed to the Promised Land.  It was going to be all peaches and cream from that point on.

            But when they approached Canaan, they had a reality check.  They still had to do their part.  They were surprised to learn that this place that was promised to them by their God was already inhabited and they would have to drive them out.  Not an easy task.

            Here's what the advance party reported back to Moses after scouting out the new territory that they intended to inhabit: "We arrived in the land you sent us to see and it is indeed magnificent country---a land flowing with milk and honey.  Here is some of its fruit as proof.  But the people living there are powerful, and their cities and towns are fortified and very large." Numbers 13:27-28

            Only two of the scouts, Joshua and Caleb, tried to dispel any fears the people had:

"The land we explored is a wonderful land.  And if the Lord is pleased with us, He will bring us safely into the land and give it to us." Numbers 14:7-8

            The Life Application Bible says of Caleb:  "Caleb was not so much a man of great faith as he was a man of faith in a great God."  Caleb told Moses and the people: "Let's go at once to take the land.  We can certainly conquer it."

            In his heart Caleb knew that through God his people would be victorious.  And they were, even though their lack of faith doomed them to wander in the wilderness for forty years before they took over the Promised Land.

            Charles Stanley says: "You may be growing weary of waiting for the desire of your heart to come to fruition, but realize, you're going to need real faith to take hold of it and God is preparing you for what it will require.  So, wait with trust in His timing.  He knows what He is doing and is making you strong to receive what your heart most longs for."

            Your heart matters to God!

Prayer:  Dear Lord continue to speak to our hearts so that we may stay strong in the faith even through these perilous times.   Amen!

           

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