It’s Time for a Heart Check

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Alright so we just had Valentine’s Day a couple of weeks ago but who doesn’t like talking about relationships, love, and matters of the heart? I love watching romantic movies and chick flicks 😆! Don’t worry, If you’re a guy or don’t like chick flicks, this is still for you!

Let me share one of my favorite verses in the Bible…

“Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.”

1 Corinthians 13:13

So there are 9 fruits of the spirit that can be found in the Bible in Galatians 5:22‭-‬23. The last episode was about joy, which is the second fruit of the holy spirit. 

Today we’re going to discuss my favorite one, love! ❤

I’m in a women’s group with my church for moms and we’ve been reading a very interesting book called The Life-Giving Home. It’s written by a mom and her daughter about setting the tone and atmosphere for your home to provide warmth, protection, and shelter from the world to rejuvenate. They give things to think about and fun family activities to do each month.

Anyways I came across something in the month of February from Sally Clarkson. She said this: “Love mysteriously heals, gives hope, builds up faith, inspires heroism and personal sacrifice. Love embodies God’s personality. His character and actions toward us – His ability to teach us, guide us, provide for us, delight us, and reach our own hearts. And Jesus is the ultimate picture of that love.”

The love we’re going to discuss isn’t the romantic chick flick version, it’s agape love. Agape love comes from an ancient Greek word meaning Godly love. This kind of love is a decision, not just a feeling.

To begin exploring agape love, we must first talk about the core of love – the matters of the heart. 

I think Helen Keller said it best when she said “the most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart.”

“For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” 

Proverbs 23:7

Thoughts are very important but our hearts might be even more so. Our heart is our internal compass but it isn’t always thinking correctly. Emotions can cloud our judgment if we aren’t careful.

“The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the WHAT? heart.”

1 Samuel 16:7

From Life-Giving Home, Sarah Clarkson said that “All our life accomplishments, from God’s point of view, will be summed up by how much we loved God and how much we loved other people.”

Jesus said “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your WHAT? heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

Matthew 22:37‭-‬40 

Jesus says that loving God and loving people are the two most important things in the Bible. Why? Love must be important to God, don’t you think? Relationships must also be important don’t you think? We’ll talk more in-depth on relationships specifically in another episode.

The biblical definition of love is found in 1 Corinthians 13:4‭-‬7 which is one of my favorite verses…

“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.”

Wow isn’t that beautiful? Applying this to our daily lives is the true test.

If I were to ask you if your life reflects love with your relationships, with your actions at work or behind closed doors, what would you say? Ouch, yeah that probably is a tough question…

I know if you ask my husband about me and this agape love, he probably would smirk 😆. I’m far from perfect but attaining this kind of love with everything I say, do, and even think is my goal.

The fruit of love encompasses so many things and we can have a healthy heart check by comparing ourselves to these things in 1 Corinthians 13.

Let’s do this little exercise together…

We’ll list out what love is but this time let’s fill in the blanks with our name instead of the word love. So I’m going to say my name but you say or think about yours. 

_____ is patient

_____ is kind

_____ is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude 

_____ does not demand its own way

_____ is not irritable and does not keep a record of being wronged. 

_____ does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever truth wins out. 

_____ never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. 

I’m not measuring up in most of these areas… As you can see from this little exercise, agape or godly love is a choice. It’s not a natural thing. It takes effort especially if I’m not in a good mood or someone has done me wrong. Do you see what I’m saying?

How can we become more loving using the standards of 1 Corinthians 13? 

“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? But I, the Lord, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve.”

Jeremiah 17:9‭-‬10 

“Guard your WHAT? heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.”

Proverbs 4:23

The Bible mentions the heart several times for a reason. Following your heart is something many advise people to do in situations. The problem with that is, sometimes our hearts can’t be trusted. Like I mentioned before, my heart can get clouded with all kinds of emotions, and trust me, you don’t want me reacting out of emotion and following my heart all of the time. It wouldn’t be pretty! 😆

Our thoughts are the pathway to our heart so we must be very selective about what we think. Then our mouth and body is the instrument of action that will either show how healthy our heart is or how sick it is. 

We will produce either good or bad fruit. We speak either life or death. People will know us by our Fruit – our actions or inaction, by what we say or don’t say. 

So let me ask you this… how healthy is your heart after doing this checkup?

In the next post, we’ll talk about another fruit of the spirit – faithfulness.

A Prayer For You

Lord Jesus, thank You for this reminder to have our heart in the right place. Teach us how to become more loving like You are no matter how we feel. Help us to be a light to the world with everything we say and do. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Stay hopeful!