September 29: World Heart Day

 

September 29:  World Heart Day

Heart Day is part of an international campaign to spread awareness about heart disease and stroke prevention.  It was created by the World Heart Federation. The first World Heart Day took place in 2000. In 2012, leaders from around the globe committed to the reduction of worldwide mortality from non-communicable diseases by 25 percent by 2025. 

God’s word has a great deal to say about our hearts.  Not the organ that this day focuses on, but the center of our being, the seat of emotion, the deep place within us from which we recognize and express our deepest longings.  That heart is of great concern to God.  Unfortunately, the world has co-opted a biblical understanding of the heart, and has made it the part of us that should control our every thought and our every action.  “Follow your heart” is the world’s way of saying, defy common sense, reject clear thinking, and instead, do what feels right.  This worldview has produced tragic outcomes, and for good reason. 

Apart from Christ, our hearts are poor drivers of our life.  Jeremiah 17:9-10 warns us:  The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”  Left to ourselves, our hearts can produce only movement away from God, away from clarity of thought and away from true soul-satisfaction.

As bad as the bad news is, the good news is better.  The fruit of the Christian gospel is laced with promise, not least of all for our hearts.  Ezekiel 36:26 breathes hope into the hearts of all those who turn by faith to God:  “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”  In addition, we are called upon to regularly seek God’s face to reveal to us the content of our hearts.  Psalm 139:23-24 reminds us:  “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

So ask yourself, has your heart been brought to life by the quickening power of God?  Have you surrendered to the Gospel, and is your heart soft and receptive to God’s will?  Then ask, do I live my life based primarily on emotions, or do I blend my heart and mind so that I seek after and live a transformed life?  Finally, ask God to reveal to you the true condition of your heart.  What idols need to be destroyed?  What part of your life do you need to surrender to Him? 

On this day, check your spiritual heart rate, and perform a personal ECG (Electrocardiogram).  Tend to your heart.  Your spiritual health and longevity demand it.