Healthy Heart

by Pastor Larry Sorrells, Rockville, Trinity UMC

As we move into February, we recognize it as being the month of hearts, flowers, and feelings of love; at least, we express those thoughts and feelings on Valentine’s Day. The Bible says a lot about love. One of my favorite prayer verses on love comes from 1 Thessalonians 3:13:

May the love cause your hearts to be strengthened, to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his people. Amen.

We talk about how to keep our hearts healthy, at least in the physical sense. We recognize the sadness of heart disease as it damages people’s lives. As real as it is in our biological nature, it’s also true in the spiritual sense. What are we doing to avoid spiritual heart disease? What are we doing to strengthen our hearts daily?

The heart muscle pumps as long as it can, no matter how we take care of it. The problem comes in when we neglect it for too long; we smoke, we eat all the wrong things and never exercise, we act as though what we do has no consequence. The truth is what we do matters, especially in matters of the heart.

We say, “I give you my heart,” but maybe we should say, “God, give me Your heart.” Let my heart beat along with the heartbeat of God. Let my heart be broken by what breaks his heart.” To be right with God, we all need a heart transplant, and He wants to give you His heart! Let him wrap His loving arms around you and give you His heart.

The heart has a big job to do. Today and every day, check-in with yourself and make sure your heart is finding nourishment from God. Ask God to give you His heart and keep your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. That way, you’ll always have a healthy heart. Blessings.