Blog
The Strong Heart
In our modern age, with knowledge of anatomy, we know how important the heart is. Heart related disease and death is the leading medical issue in our nation. To this end it is common to hear magazines, articles, blogs, and our doctors talk about building strong hearts. Weak hearts can’t keep up with our bodies, and lead to fatigue and panic episodes. While the ancients didn’t approach their anatomy analogies the same way we do, there are a few good spiritual parallels between our love and our hearts.
One powerful story is of Nabal, the foolish and selfish man who rejected David and David’s protection. It is clear in 1 Samuel 25 that Nabal is not a loving man. Both his servants and his wife knew his selfish and foolish reputation. While his wife, Abigail, saved him and his household from complete destruction, Nabal’s downfall was indeed his heart. In the midst of his gluttony, God caused his heart to “become as stone.” This is a perfect parable in action of how God sees us when we close our hearts to those in need.
The Satan deceives us into thinking that strong, healthy, hearts are hard and unwilling to be moved. After all, a muscularly strong man cannot be moved by an enemy. But God looks at it the opposite way. A hard heart is the one that is swift to destroy its owner, while a soft heart is quick to love and repent. So often the prophets (even Jesus) chastise their audience for having “hard hearts.” So if we want to have strong, healthy, spiritual hearts, then we are not looking for stubbornness. A strong heart is one which loves.
1 Thessalonians 3:12-13 says “May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.” NIV
All muscles need training. All strong body parts need to exercise and practice. Paul says that strong hearts train for three things:
First, the strong heart trains for overflowing love. Not just sufficient love, but overflowing: more than needed. Just as the Psalmist says “my cup overflows” so also our brethren should say so concerning our love for them. Not just for our local brethren, but “for everyone else.” This is hard to exercise. Humans are in the habit of making it difficult to love them. Especially those under Satan’s deception concerning hard hearts. But truly strong hearts do not form barriers of mutual grudges. Strong hearts overflow with love toward the unlovable, depraved, scum of humanity. That’s who we were when Jesus loved us.
Second, the strong heart trains for holiness. To be blameless isn’t to say that we have no history of sin. To be blameless means we are *currently free from sin and justified by the cleansing blood of Jesus. The weak heart is ruled by the whims of the flesh. The weak heart boasts in its own supposed strength. Strong hearts boast only in the power of divine blood, letting the blood of Christ pump through their veins.
Third, the strong heart trains to look forward to the coming of God. The weak heart knows that it stands condemned before God. It seeks to avoid that topic through distractions. The strong heart, who loves the Lord and loves His people, can’t wait for Jesus to come back. If the strong heart is going to stand in confidence on the final day, then it must pour itself into the scriptures, into prayer, and into hope which the Spirit alone provides.
Citizens of this nation pour hours, days, years, and trillions of dollars into a system of battling weak hearts of the flesh. If we recognize the value of the fleshly heart for the good of the body, are we training and sacrificing to ensure that our *love is strong before God? That our love is strong for our brethren (that our hearts are stronger than their shortcomings)? That our desires are fully on the spirit instead of the flesh? That our hope and greatest joy is in the coming of Christ over anything else on this earth? Let’s start training now, using Jesus’ as pattern.
