I Heart You.

Ever really sat down and thought about.....

your heart?

Maybe you have, but I have not actually sat down to think about it until this weekend.
I was thinking how much our hearts have to do with everyday life. And I know what you might be thinking....thanks, Captain Obvious! Yeah. But really, how often do we just throw our heart around and not realize it? Things we say, do, watch...can really affect our hearts. Proverbs says hope deferred makes the heart sick. And hope itself is only one thing in this world that can make our hearts sick. What about when we just casually hand our heart over to someone we think we love....then we get hurt?

My point is, we all know that Jesus is big on our hearts, but do we even realize how much? I read in a book today "that the subject of the heart is addressed in the Bible more than any other topic." (thanks John Eldredge!) If I was given a guess, I would have said faith or salvation. Not the heart. But this book made a good point that the heart is central.....look at this quote.

"There is no escaping the centrality of the heart. God knows that; it's why He made it the central theme of the Bible, just as He placed the physical heart in the center of the human body. The heart is central; to find our lives, we must make it central again."

So I look at this, and I'm like pssssh....I know! But then I think, if hearts could literally break....mine would have scotch tape all over it. From people. Death. Situations. Consequences. Myself. My heart didn't have to break so many times had I just given everything over to God. That's His goal and that's what we struggle with a lot. Some people's hearts break so much that they just give up on life. Lose heart, lose everything. Sad, isn't it? I was fortunate enough to grow up in a Christian home and became a believer at an early age. So I don't remember what it's like to not believe in God. But I can just imagine people who don't know God....even if they are happy and blessed, surely there's an aching deep inside them. They have got to know something is missing, no matter how much they deny that. Right? Is it weird to say sometimes I wish I could have felt what it was like to be a non-believer then be radically changed? Don't get me wrong, my salvation is everything. I've been radically changed by God. I guess I just like those really awesome stories of people finally figuring out that God was the part missing from their heart.

So, good books I recommend to get about this subject:
1. The book I keep mentioning....The Ransomed Heart by John Eldredge.
2. Soul Cravings by Erwin McManus.

What are you waiting on.....get yourself to the bookstore! :)