A Heart for God
by Susan Miller
Originally as I started to write this article, it started out as a Prayer about my heart/your heart/our hearts; it turned into something else. As Believers, we know that man’s heart-condition, in the spiritual realm, is ‘deceitful and desperately wicked’ as stated in Scripture. That is precisely why we are in need of our Savior, Jesus/Yeshua, whose blood has redeemed us. Many people still struggle even after coming to the knowledge and understanding of what Jesus has done for them. Yes, they are saved and born again. But what about that heart?
The Bible says that our hearts need to be circumcised and can be far from God. What does that mean?
“These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” Matt. 15:8
Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. Deut. 10:16
Let’s zoom in on this subject and see what we can discover together. Let’s start with a conversational prayer as though between you and the LORD stating the obvious….
Abba…. You have been concerned about my heart….
My heart has been:
This is an honest prayer. We all start our journey with our Messiah; admitting that we have a heart problem and are in need of Yeshua to: save, cleanse us from our sin, and make us acceptable in the Beloved. By Adoption, we enter His into His family. We come to know Him as He teaches us through His Word.
We pursue Him discovering what a wonderful God we serve. Then, sometime later, at some wonderful moment of acknowledgement…. we come to realize all that He has done for us in changing our outlook, and our behavior as well as healing our hearts. Perhaps we pray again something like this:
Abba…. Your concern for my heart has captured it and now it belongs to You.
You have:
A Heart for Service to the King…
Scripture says, “You shall love Yahuah your Elohim with all your heart with all your soul and with all your strength.” Deuteronomy 6:5
What does it mean to love God with all our heart? Is it speaking of our physical beating heart or only our spiritual heart?
We learned in elementary school a person’s heart serves the body… as it pumps its life source throughout the circulatory system. Did you know, however, that there is a heart/brain communication connection extraordinaire? It is as though your heart and brain have a Covenant with one another. The heart actually sends more commands to the brain than the other way around. The heart responds to the brain and the brain is continuously responding to the heart. There is dynamic two-way communication between these two important organs in your body. With over 60% of your heart cells being neurons similar to those in your brain, this begs a couple of questions: Can you really know something in your heart, and does your heart have feelings?
As per the Heart Math Institute: For centuries, the heart has been considered the source of emotion, courage and wisdom. At the Institute of Heart Math (IHM) Research Center, we are exploring the physiological mechanisms by which the heart communicates with the brain, thereby influencing information processing, perceptions, emotions and health. We are asking questions such as: Why do people experience the feeling or sensation of love and other positive emotional states in the area of the heart and what are the physiological ramifications of these emotions? How do stress and different emotional states affect the autonomic nervous system, the hormonal and immune systems, the heart and brain?
The IHM Institute has also measured a magnetic field around the heart area. This magnetic field is the reason that your heart picks up all kind of signals regarding emotions, both positive and negative. Well…. regardless…. your heart/my heart/our hearts are very powerful, for function both inside our body and outside with whatever emotional environment we live in.
What does this mean? Your heart/my heart/ our hearts…. really do feel love.
Within twenty days of conception, the human heart is functioning and is the first organ of all in the body to do so. In comparison, the brain is not functioning until about the third month. What do we do with our hearts after birth? Well nothing really… as it is part of the autonomic nervous system. and will beat and transport all the life-giving oxygen and nutrients needed… as well as waste products not needed to their proper destinations for a whole lifetime. In the Bible, the first time any word is used, it is given special consideration or notice. By definition of the ‘first-use’ principle, the heart, being the first organ to develop, is of primary consideration - deserving to be honored and recognized for its proper meaning and purpose.
Now…back to the Bible! What does the Bible say about my heart/your heart/our hearts? Biblically, the ‘first use’ of the word heart is found in Genesis 6:5-6.
Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
Wow! The first use of the word “heart” in the Bible refers to every intent of the thoughts of the heart were evil….and the second is God’s heart was grieved.
Let me restate that:
That says to me that both man’s heart and God’s heart are in need of healing! How can we minister to God’s heart? Have you ever thought of that? It is more than saying, “I’m sorry” or “Please forgive me”. Ministering to God’s heart is all about Praise and Worship. From our hearts, should arise words of blessing, adoration, boasting of Who and What our God is; and what He has done, is doing and will do. Our hands should clap for joy and be raised up to Him in a gesture of appreciation and wanting to hold onto Him.
O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!” Psalm 107:8
Think of King David and the choirs that he had praising God in songs, that are recorded in the Book of Psalms. David had a 4000-voice choir/orchestra praising God 24 hours per day in the City of David. No wonder God spoke of David as a man after His own heart.
The Bible also says about the heart:
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? John 14:2
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Matt. 5:8
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? Jer. 17:9
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Prov. 3:5-6
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Heb. 4: 12
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Psalm 51:10
Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. Prov. 4:23
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:18
Well…. there are many more! But this list shows a consistent pattern. The human heart is fragile, fickle and powerful. I can see from this list of Bible verses…why God wants to help us with our hearts!
Without Him and without His Spirit that wants to abide within us, our hearts will be prone to wander away. A wandering heart is prone to being hurt, or crushed or broken to pieces and scattered around in all the places we have left it. A lonely heart is separated from where it all begun at the time the LORD was knitting that person together in its mother’s womb.
Trying to mend itself, the heart will often become hardened; because a broken heart can’t mend itself. It takes the Creator to mend, heal, save, gather together, and remove the hard callous that is trying to protect the person it serves. Oh, what a happy day, when that heart cries out to Yeshua for help; only He can do anything about a broken heart.
Not only does He want to gather, mend, heal, make whole, and fill your heart with the joy that only comes from Him, but He will remove the hardened callous that has developed from years of use (or even abuse).
He will return to you a circumcised heart… suitable for engraving His Word upon. He will do that for you because He loves you that much… and that is what your heart was created to be. A vessel to carry His Spirit and His Word to the other hurting hearts out there.
But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD, I will put My law in their inward parts, and in their heart, will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Jeremiah 31:33
This heart.... your heart…. is now suitable for service to the King of Kings.
Halleluyah!
by Susan Miller
Originally as I started to write this article, it started out as a Prayer about my heart/your heart/our hearts; it turned into something else. As Believers, we know that man’s heart-condition, in the spiritual realm, is ‘deceitful and desperately wicked’ as stated in Scripture. That is precisely why we are in need of our Savior, Jesus/Yeshua, whose blood has redeemed us. Many people still struggle even after coming to the knowledge and understanding of what Jesus has done for them. Yes, they are saved and born again. But what about that heart?
The Bible says that our hearts need to be circumcised and can be far from God. What does that mean?
“These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” Matt. 15:8
Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. Deut. 10:16
Let’s zoom in on this subject and see what we can discover together. Let’s start with a conversational prayer as though between you and the LORD stating the obvious….
Abba…. You have been concerned about my heart….
My heart has been:
- Broken
- Lost
- Sinful and desperately wicked
- Hardened but empty
- Uncircumcised, with a tough exterior
- Wayward, wandering, wavering
- Far from You
This is an honest prayer. We all start our journey with our Messiah; admitting that we have a heart problem and are in need of Yeshua to: save, cleanse us from our sin, and make us acceptable in the Beloved. By Adoption, we enter His into His family. We come to know Him as He teaches us through His Word.
We pursue Him discovering what a wonderful God we serve. Then, sometime later, at some wonderful moment of acknowledgement…. we come to realize all that He has done for us in changing our outlook, and our behavior as well as healing our hearts. Perhaps we pray again something like this:
Abba…. Your concern for my heart has captured it and now it belongs to You.
You have:
- Gathered its pieces
- Contained and cleansed it
- Mended and healed it
- Circumcised it - making it soft and pliable
- Made it whole
- Filled it with joy and love for You
A Heart for Service to the King…
Scripture says, “You shall love Yahuah your Elohim with all your heart with all your soul and with all your strength.” Deuteronomy 6:5
What does it mean to love God with all our heart? Is it speaking of our physical beating heart or only our spiritual heart?
We learned in elementary school a person’s heart serves the body… as it pumps its life source throughout the circulatory system. Did you know, however, that there is a heart/brain communication connection extraordinaire? It is as though your heart and brain have a Covenant with one another. The heart actually sends more commands to the brain than the other way around. The heart responds to the brain and the brain is continuously responding to the heart. There is dynamic two-way communication between these two important organs in your body. With over 60% of your heart cells being neurons similar to those in your brain, this begs a couple of questions: Can you really know something in your heart, and does your heart have feelings?
As per the Heart Math Institute: For centuries, the heart has been considered the source of emotion, courage and wisdom. At the Institute of Heart Math (IHM) Research Center, we are exploring the physiological mechanisms by which the heart communicates with the brain, thereby influencing information processing, perceptions, emotions and health. We are asking questions such as: Why do people experience the feeling or sensation of love and other positive emotional states in the area of the heart and what are the physiological ramifications of these emotions? How do stress and different emotional states affect the autonomic nervous system, the hormonal and immune systems, the heart and brain?
The IHM Institute has also measured a magnetic field around the heart area. This magnetic field is the reason that your heart picks up all kind of signals regarding emotions, both positive and negative. Well…. regardless…. your heart/my heart/our hearts are very powerful, for function both inside our body and outside with whatever emotional environment we live in.
What does this mean? Your heart/my heart/ our hearts…. really do feel love.
Within twenty days of conception, the human heart is functioning and is the first organ of all in the body to do so. In comparison, the brain is not functioning until about the third month. What do we do with our hearts after birth? Well nothing really… as it is part of the autonomic nervous system. and will beat and transport all the life-giving oxygen and nutrients needed… as well as waste products not needed to their proper destinations for a whole lifetime. In the Bible, the first time any word is used, it is given special consideration or notice. By definition of the ‘first-use’ principle, the heart, being the first organ to develop, is of primary consideration - deserving to be honored and recognized for its proper meaning and purpose.
Now…back to the Bible! What does the Bible say about my heart/your heart/our hearts? Biblically, the ‘first use’ of the word heart is found in Genesis 6:5-6.
Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
Wow! The first use of the word “heart” in the Bible refers to every intent of the thoughts of the heart were evil….and the second is God’s heart was grieved.
Let me restate that:
- Evil was the intent of man’s heart and
- God’s heart was grieved
That says to me that both man’s heart and God’s heart are in need of healing! How can we minister to God’s heart? Have you ever thought of that? It is more than saying, “I’m sorry” or “Please forgive me”. Ministering to God’s heart is all about Praise and Worship. From our hearts, should arise words of blessing, adoration, boasting of Who and What our God is; and what He has done, is doing and will do. Our hands should clap for joy and be raised up to Him in a gesture of appreciation and wanting to hold onto Him.
O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!” Psalm 107:8
Think of King David and the choirs that he had praising God in songs, that are recorded in the Book of Psalms. David had a 4000-voice choir/orchestra praising God 24 hours per day in the City of David. No wonder God spoke of David as a man after His own heart.
The Bible also says about the heart:
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? John 14:2
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Matt. 5:8
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? Jer. 17:9
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Prov. 3:5-6
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Heb. 4: 12
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Psalm 51:10
Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. Prov. 4:23
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:18
Well…. there are many more! But this list shows a consistent pattern. The human heart is fragile, fickle and powerful. I can see from this list of Bible verses…why God wants to help us with our hearts!
Without Him and without His Spirit that wants to abide within us, our hearts will be prone to wander away. A wandering heart is prone to being hurt, or crushed or broken to pieces and scattered around in all the places we have left it. A lonely heart is separated from where it all begun at the time the LORD was knitting that person together in its mother’s womb.
Trying to mend itself, the heart will often become hardened; because a broken heart can’t mend itself. It takes the Creator to mend, heal, save, gather together, and remove the hard callous that is trying to protect the person it serves. Oh, what a happy day, when that heart cries out to Yeshua for help; only He can do anything about a broken heart.
Not only does He want to gather, mend, heal, make whole, and fill your heart with the joy that only comes from Him, but He will remove the hardened callous that has developed from years of use (or even abuse).
He will return to you a circumcised heart… suitable for engraving His Word upon. He will do that for you because He loves you that much… and that is what your heart was created to be. A vessel to carry His Spirit and His Word to the other hurting hearts out there.
But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD, I will put My law in their inward parts, and in their heart, will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Jeremiah 31:33
This heart.... your heart…. is now suitable for service to the King of Kings.
Halleluyah!