Everybody has a heart. Even though we say stuff that contradicts that—“How can you be so heartless?”—we know everybody’s got one. And we don’t mean the blood pump heart; we mean the core of our being. We mean the place deep inside that influences what we do, and especially how we treat people. God’s been talking about the heart in the same way for a long time. He has quite a history with the heart, this place of ultimate influence, since He made it.
Throughout much of history, God labored to influence the hearts of men and women from the outside. And there was a problem, as God tells us in Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”
Ooh. That’s bad. And hopeless. But wait, it gets worse. Jeremiah 17:10 says, “I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.”
Oh, great. I’m toast. Let’s get it over with. Everybody’s got an incurable and hopeless problem—their heart. But God had a plan in the works for the heart. There would come a time when no longer would He work to influence the heart from the outside; He was going to replace it and move in! Not only does Jeremiah have it in chapter 31, but Ezekiel chapter 36 tells us: 25 “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”
BOOM! This is the ultimate “Out with the old, in with the new” construction project. This is the new birth! Paul tells us in the book of Colossians chapter one, that this was “the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:26-27).
There are a hundred ways this applies to us as the recipients of new hearts, with God inside as the package deal, including gifts and blessings galore. But for today, here’s my point: Everybody has a heart. Call that to mind when you’re speaking with them or reading their stuff online or watching their videos. This will keep you from going blind and deaf because you’re intrigued or enflamed by what they say or what they wear. How’s their heart? And if you don’t know, speak to them, speak of them as though God’s target is the heart: either He’s looking at a future move-in date on the calendar, or He’s already there. I don’t mean you have to become an evangelist, but be aware. The Spirit, who lives in you, will love your attention and produce something that proves He’s in you, and that He loves people—right in the heart.
We like that. See you later.