A matter of the heart
Recently, the BBC headlined a call made by 40 health organisations, which encouraged people to take advantage of NHS health checks in order to prevent cardiovascular disease. As a result many thousands will have accessed the NHS online calculator ‘What’s your heart age?’
Did you know that God is also concerned about the state of our heart? Indeed, he has a lot to say on the subject. Of course, we are not now speaking of the muscle that is pumping in our chest, but ‘heart’ in the sense of being one’s own personhood - who I really am at heart.
We like to believe that people are basically good but then God comes along and starts using words like ‘deceitful’ and ‘wicked’ to describe the human heart. Would a God of love say that sort of thing about everyone or just bad people? That may sound a reasonable question but where are we going to set the dividing line that identifies some people as ‘bad’ whilst others aren’t?
Jesus doesn’t take a soft line either about the condition of the human heart. In fact, he proceeds to illustrate what God means by such words as ‘deceitful’ and ‘wicked’. He explains, ‘out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.’
‘These’ Jesus says, ‘are what make a person unclean' (i.e. soiled, stained and spoiled in God’s sight).
If we will recognise and admit to God’s assessment of the human condition, it will answer most of the questions about why the problems in our world are as they are - politically, economically, socially and relationally. God longs for us to see that both as individuals and en masse we are in a fix; a condition of the heart that is terminal. We need to be healed, we need a divine physician, in short a saviour.
This is the context in which the love of God is to be understood. He has sent Jesus to explain his diagnosis, purchase the cure and then apply it to anyone who will come to him for it.
Jesus specialises in heart renewal! That is what Christians mean when they speak of a message of good news. By admitting our need, trusting in the ability of Jesus to wash away those things which are offensive to God, the cure begins. The healing continues as God’s Holy Spirit skilfully and tenderly changes men and women from the inside so that things that come out of the renewed heart are now pleasing to God.
When Jesus’ first followers preached this message, many hearers were ‘cut to the heart’. The divine surgery had begun! And so it continues around the world this very day.
Google ‘what’s your heart age NHS’ but remember your heart needs two check-ups!