What Is Your Heart

We started with a promise and a puzzle. Jesus said he came so we could have life, and have it abundantly.

Yet Christians often look no happier than anyone else. Same divorces. Same struggles. Same fights. Where is the disconnect?

We heard the start of an answer. There is a spiritual battle we cannot see. We were pointed to a book that describes the story of your life as a long assault on your heart, because God treasures the heart and the Enemy wants it.

But the book never actually said what the heart is. The Bible names it more than eight hundred times. So we asked the plain question. What is your heart, and why should you care?

To find the heart, we first looked at the whole person. We are three parts. Spirit, soul, and body. Paul prayed for all three. Daniel spoke of his spirit within his body.

The order matters. God works from the inside out, starting with the spirit.

Our spirit is what sets us apart from every other creature. God breathed it into us. When we come to Christ, the Holy Spirit makes our spirit new. Perfect. Holy. Settled in an instant and never undone.

Our soul is our mind. Where we think, decide, and remember. Unlike the spirit, the soul is not made perfect all at once. It is renewed slowly, over a lifetime, as the mind is transformed.

And our body is the covering. It belongs to this world. Most open to sin, and not made new until the resurrection.

Then the heart itself. We walked the list of what Scripture says it holds. Thoughts. Affections. Desires. Visions and dreams. Motives. Concerns. Conscience.

And we noticed the heart is not automatically good. It can be divided. God said of Israel, their heart is divided. David prayed, unite my heart.

Here was the center of it. Your heart is your whole inner person. It holds both your spirit and your soul.

When your mind agrees with your spirit, which is already aligned with God, your heart is united. When your mind chooses the ways of the world, your heart is divided. And a divided heart leaves even a holy spirit powerless. The double-minded man, James said, is unstable in all his ways.

So where is the answer? In the Word of God. Sharper than any sword, it divides soul from spirit and reads the heart.

Our minds will always drift. We do not have to follow them. We renew the mind by staying in the truth, until the soul lines up with the spirit and the heart becomes one. That is the road back to the abundant life Jesus promised.

Something to sit with this week:

Where is your mind pulling against your spirit right now, and what time in God’s Word this week might begin to unite your heart?