Jeremiah 17:9-10 “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? I, the Lord, search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.”
The heart, a small, yet powerful, life-giving organ. It acts like a muscle really. For the heart to stay strong, it must be exercised. The average adult heart beats 60-100 bpm (beats per minute). At rest, a lower heart rate usually signifies better cardiovascular fitness, also implying the heart is stronger. Activities such as brisk walking, jogging, or biking, where heart rate increases for a period of time, is a sure way to help strengthen this beating muscle. Other fun facts about the heart:
- Average adult heart weighs 8-10 ounces and is about the size of a fist
- Pumps more than 2,000 gallons of blood everyday
- Beats approximately 115,000 times each day
- The blood vessel system, if stretched, would be 60,000 miles long
https://www.healthline.com/health/fun-facts-about-the-heart
Wow, the human body contains about 60,000 miles of blood vessels. I find this last one utterly amazing! This points to a creator God.
The beating heart, the organ in our body that plays an integral role in keeping us alive. The heart, like most organs, is hidden inside the body. It lies in the upper left chest. The left lung is narrow and long compared to the right lung (wide and short) to make space for the heart. The human body designed in such a way allowing for the perfect place for our heart space.
What else can the heart do?
The heart can love fiercely…the heart can love half-heartedly…the heart can become complacent…the heart can fall out of love….the heart can become hateful.
Woah…hateful?
The word heart appears 830 times in the Bible. (Strong’s Concordance, King James Version) I am thinking the heart is pretty significant!
In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for heart is leb. The heart holds our motives, affections, feelings, and desires. More so it includes our intellect, principles, will, and thoughts. The heart, in our perfect heart space, reveals our inner most being; the seat of our emotions, the seat of our intelligence.
The heart can be receptive to both worldly and Godly influences. This is good news! What we listen to, what we read, what we study, can have a direct influence on our heart.
Can you see the power of the human heart?
So the heart can both love and hate. The heart can contain both good and evil. All of our feelings and thoughts, desires, words, then actions (in this order) stem from our heart (Luke 6:45).
Jeremiah, known as the weeping prophet, offers these words to Judah. He was tasked with prophesizing God’s judgement. Though the people’s hearts were hardened and had fallen away from God, He is the only one that can bring restoration and a New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:33). Without God, our heart is beyond our understanding.
Satan, in his cunning and destructive ways, plants those seeds of jealously, pride, and anger. That we might think at first we are justified to our thoughts and feelings because of hurt or our need for being right. It often happens in such a subtle way, we don’t recognize it. It happens in those hidden places, in those hidden moments when we are filled with doubt and fear. It happens in the reservoir of our heart. Jesus was grieved with the Pharisees over their hardened hearts (Mark 3:5). Just like the Pharisees, our hearts can become hardened, filled with jealously, pride, or anger. Our hearts become tainted. Deceived.
God can help.
Our flesh and heart will often fail us. We need God’s help. He promises to search, to test, and guide us (Psalm 139:23-24, Proverbs 17:3). We can find hope and comfort in His guiding. There is beauty in this restoration. The power of the blood of Christ flowing over us, in us, and through us. Jesus longs to reside in our heart.
Friends, I pray this over your life (and mine) today. Whatever healing and restoration that you (I) need, the Holy Spirit can renew the weary heart. In Jesus’ name we (I) pray, Amen.
Be on the look out for more posts this month as we continue studying the heart.
