The Heart
Reference: Proverbs 4:23 - "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life."
A definition of the "heart"
Contemporary people generally consider the head with its brain to be the center and the director of human activity. However, the Bible speaks of the heart as the center; "out of it are the issues of life"
Biblically, the heart may be seen as containing the totality of one's intellect, emotion and volition. Mark 7:20-23
The heart is the center of the intellect. People consider things in their heart (Deuteronomy 8:5), meditate in their heart (Psalms 19:14), commune with themselves (Psalms 77:6) or God (1 Samuel 1:12-13) in their heart, hide God's word in their heart (Psalms 119:11), keep things in their heart (Proverbs 4:21), imagine things in their heart (Psalms 140:2), reason in their heart (Mark 2:8), doubt in their heart (Mark 11:23), ponder in their heart (Luke 2:19), believe in their heart (Romans 10:9), and sing in their heart (Ephesians 5:19).
All of these actions of the heart are primarily issues involving the mind.
The heart is the center of emotions. The Scriptures speak about the glad heart (Exodus 4:14; Jeremiah 15:16), the loving heart (Deuteronomy 6:5), the fearful heart (Joshua 5:1), the courageous heart (Psalms 27:14), the repentant heart (Psalms 51:17), the heavy heart (Proverbs 12:25; Romans 9:2), the angry heart (Proverbs 19:3. Lamentations 2:18), the humble heart (Matthews 11:29), the excited or burning heart (Luke 24:32), and the troubled heart (John 14:1).
All of these actions of the heart are primarily emotional in character.
Finally, the heart is the center of the human will. We read in the Scriptures about the hardened heart that refuses to do what god commands (Exodus 4:21), the heart that is inclined to cling to God (Joshua 24:23) and to obey His testimonies (Psalms 119:36), the heart that is set to seek the Lord (1 Chronicles 22:19), the heart that wants to receive from the Lord Psalms 21:1-2), and the heart that desires to do something (Romans 10:1).
All of these activities take place in the human will.
THE NATURE OF THE HEART APART FROM GOD
Hearts that are bent upon doing evil run the grave risk of becoming hardened. Those who persistently refuse to listen to God's Word and to obey what He commands, and instead follow the wicked desires of their hearts will find that God will eventually harden their hearts so that they lose all sensitivity to His Word and to the desires of the Holy spirit. The primary example of this in the Scriptures is the heart of the Pharaoh at the time of the exodus.
(Exodus 7:3, 13, 22-23; 8:15,32; 9:12; 10:1; 11:10; 14:17).
THE REGENERATED HEART
God's answer to the sinfulness of the human heart is regeneration, which comes to all those who repent of their sins, turn to God, and place a personal faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior.
1. Regeneration is a matter of the heart. The person who repents from his heart of all sin and confesses in his heart that Jesus is Lord (Romans 10:9) is born again and receives a new heart from God (Psalms 51:10; Ezekiel 11:19).
2. Within the hearts of those who experience spiritual birth, God creates a desire to love Him and to obey Him. Repeatedly God emphasized to His people the necessity of a love which comes from the heart. Such love for and devotion to God cannot be separated from obedience to His law. Jesus taught that love for God with the whole heart and love for one's neighbor summarize the entire law of God (Matthews 22:37-40).
3. Love from the heart is the essential ingredient in obedience to God. All to often God's people tried to substitute obedience to mere outward religious from (feast days, offerings, and sacrifices) for genuine love from the heart. Outward observance without an inner desire to serve God is hypocrisy and is severely condemned by our Lord (Matthews 23:13-28).
4. Many other spiritual activities take place in the hearts of regenerated believers. They praise God from their heart (Psalms 9:1), meditate on God's word continually in their heart (Psalms 19:14), cry out to God from the heart (Psalms 84:2), seek God with all their heart, hide God's word in their heart, trust in the Lord with their whole heart, experience the love of God poured out into their heart, and sing to God from their heart.
Scripture References:
Mark 7:20-23
20 And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.
21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:
23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.
Deut 8:1-5
1 All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers.
2 And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.
3 And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.
4 Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years.
5 Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the LORD thy God chasteneth thee.
Ps 19:12-14
12 Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.
13 Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.
14 Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.
Ps 77:5-7
5 I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times.
6 I call to remembrance my song in the night: I commune with mine own heart: and my spirit made diligent search.
7 Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more?
1 Sam 1:1-13
1 Now there was a certain man of Ramatha'im-zophim, of mount Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephrathite:
2 And he had two wives; the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah: and Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.
3 And this man went up out of his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the LORD of hosts in Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the LORD, were there.
4 And when the time was that Elkanah offered, he gave to Peninnah his wife, and to all her sons and her daughters, portions:
5 But unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion; for he loved Hannah: but the LORD had shut up her womb.
6 And her adversary also provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the LORD had shut up her womb.
7 And as he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the LORD, so she provoked her; therefore she wept, and did not eat.
8 Then said Elkanah her husband to her, Hannah, why weepest thou? and why eatest thou not? and why is thy heart grieved? am not I better to thee than ten sons?
9 So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh, and after they had drunk. Now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post of the temple of the LORD.
10 And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the LORD, and wept sore.
11 And she vowed a vow, and said, O LORD of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life, and there shall no rasor come upon his head.
12 And it came to pass, as she continued praying before the LORD, that Eli marked her mouth.
13 Now Hannah, she spake in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard: therefore Eli thought she had been drunken.
Ps 119:11
11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.
Prov 4:21
21 Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.
Ps 140:1-3
1 Deliver me, O LORD, from the evil man: preserve me from the violent man;
2 Which imagine mischiefs in their heart; continually are they gathered together for war.
3 They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders' poison is under their lips. Selah.
Mark 2:6-8
6 But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts,
7 Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?
8 And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts?
Mark 11:23
23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he
saith.
Luke 2:19
19 But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.
Rom 10:9
9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Eph 5:19
19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
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