Devotion by Pastor Audrey Ng
Your speech will betray you. Speech is the index of the soul. Utterance is the open door through which the character is known. Words are the fruit of the lips, and by their fruits we know them.
The above statement is so true. The Bible says the same.
Proverbs 4:23 Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.”
The Amplified Bible reads “Above all guard your heart, for it affects everything you do.”
The Hebrew and Greek meaning of the word “heart” refers to the feelings, the will, and even the intellect. It is the centre of everything.
The Latin word Kardia, which means “heart”, refers to the thoughts and feelings, which are the soul, and also the mind.
The heart is the inner self that thinks, feels and decides. Biblically speaking, the word heart has a much broader meaning than it does to the modern mind. The heart is that which is central to a person. Nearly all the references to the heart in the Bible refer to some aspect of the human personality.
In the Old Testament, the word “heart” occurs 860 times. This fact alone indicates the importance of its role within the spiritual realm. The Bible reads …“out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”
Matthew 15:18-19 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies
In the Bible, all emotions are experienced by the heart—love and hate, joy and sorrow, peace and bitterness, courage and fear, and so on. The thinking processes are said to be carried out by the heart.
The heart thinks:
Esther 6:6 “So Haman came in. And the king said unto him, What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honor? Now Haman thought in his heart, To whom would the king delight to do honor more than to myself?”
The heart understands:
Job 38:36 Who has put wisdom in the mind? Or who has given understanding to the heart?
The heart imagines:
Jeremiah 9:14 “But have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them:”
The heart remembers:
Deuteronomy 4:9 ” Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons;”
The heart can exercises wisdom:
Proverbs 2:10 ” When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul;”
The heart reasons:
Deuteronomy 7:17 ” If thou shalt say in thine heart, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?”
Decision making is also carried out by the heart;
The heart has a purpose:
Acts 11:23 ” Who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord.”
The heart has intention:
Hebrews 4:12 ” For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
The heart has a will:
Ephesians 6:6 ” Not with eye service, as men pleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;”
With all that the heart can do, we need to preserve, guard and reserve our hearts for Christ above all other things.
A lot of people think that Christianity is doing what is right and avoiding what is wrong in order to make it to heaven. No! That is a lost man with religion.
A Christian is a person whose heart has been changed by the Holy Spirit; he now has his affections set on Jesus.
Is your heart changed and reserved for Christ only?
I once read about Queen Victoria when she was in the Highlands. She stopped at the cottage of a poor woman, and sat for a few minutes in the woman’s old armchair. When the party was leaving, someone told the old woman who her visitor was. The old woman was awed by the honour which had been hers. Taking up the old chair, she carried it into the spare room, saying, “No one shall ever sit in this chair again, because my queen sat in it.”
How much more sacred should we keep our hearts for whom Christ dwells as King and Lord? Let’s reserve our hearts for Jesus to occupy fully.