What's in your heart? by Lou Ann Keiser guest blogger

Roses in Paris -- photo courtesy of Collage of Life

It’s Valentine's Day.  Everywhere--hearts, flowers, cards, and chocolates.

Everyone is in romance mode. 

Prince Charming is at the door. 

His heart is in his smile. He has a huge bouquet of red roses in one hand and a several-pound heart-shaped box of chocolates in the other. 

Or not. 

I don’t know about you, but this whole scenario smacks of too-good-to-be-true. It’s more than a little bit fairytale. 

Let’s see what the Bible has to say about hearts. 

See Ecclesiastes3:11.  He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. Interesting: the Hebrew word for world means “everlasting, evermore, perpetual.” So, we could read this phrase, “he hath set eternity in their heart.”  

Everyone, male and female, was created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). We obviously aren’t made physically in His image, since God is a Spirit. This has to mean that we have a soul. In contrast with plants, animals, rocks, and seas, we have a soul. It’s our heart. 

By the sixth chapter of Genesis, God was already displeased with man’s heart. 

And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart (verses 5-6). God’s heart was grieved because of man’s heart. 

A bleak commentary indeed regarding man's heart. 

The good news is:  

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).

That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:15).

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8). 

Did you notice the Valentine words?  Love.  Gift. 

It doesn’t stop there.  

God promises to cleanse believers when we confess our sins to Him (1 John1:8-9). The

psalmist David put it this way: Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit

within me (Psalm 51:10). 

As much as we might romantically desire the flowers and chocolates, isn’t the real condition

of our heart much more important? 

The Truth says: 

 

God loves us. 

He loved us so much that He sent His only Son to die for our sins.  This love is free and available to everyone.  God’s forgiveness is eternal.  God’s love is so much higher than human love.

 

David said, talking about God’s care, Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I

cannot attain unto it (Psalm139:6).

 

This Valentine’s Day, let’s look for more than flowers, chocolates, and romance.

 

Let’s let God take care of our hearts!
 

Lou Ann Keiser

 

Lou Ann Keiser is a missionary pastor's wife with over thirty years of ministry experience.  She loves teaching the Bible. She is a mother of two married children and a grandmother.  She and her husband live in a quaint town in Europe.  I'd like to thank her for being my first guest blog writer.  To read more about her, visit her blog at In the Way.

 

 

Thank you so much for visiting Write Moments with God.  I will return with one of my own devotions for the next blog post.  May God be with you.