Did you know every day your heart creates enough energy to drive a truck 20 miles (to the moon and back over the average lifetime)? And did you know a kitchen faucet would need to be turned on full blast for at least 45 years to match the amount of blood your heart pumps over the average lifetime? Your heart pumps almost 1.5 million gallons of blood over an average lifetime (that's enough to fill 200 tank cars). Your heart also has its own electrical impulse, which means that it can continue to beat even when separated from your body, so long as it has a sufficient store of oxygen. Pretty amazing little muscle in your chest, don't you think?
But what the Bible has to say about our hearts is not so great. Oh, God doesn't beat up on our physical hearts, but our spiritual hearts. Jeremiah 17:9 says the heart is wicked above all things. And if you're wondering where adulteries, murders, thefts, and evil thoughts come from, look no further than the heart, Matthew 15:19 declares. We are creatures of the heart: we do what we want, which is a problem because our hearts wantevil things.
As John Trapp would say, the heart is a den of dragons, a dungeon of darkness, a sty and stable for every foul lust.
But take heart! You are not doomed! In Ezekiel 36:26, God promises His people a new heart: a heart with new power, new standards, new motives, and new desires.
God promises to remove our stony hearts and put in us hearts of flesh. I'm not talking about heart surgery. I'm talking about a heart transplant. God doesn't fix up your old heart, but gives you a new one altogether. He takes out your hard heart which is made of concrete, and gives you a new heart of wet cement, so that every time He touches it, it makes an impression.
How do you get this new heart?
You can't do it by yourself, that's for sure, any more than you could do a physical heart transplant on your own body. You need a doctor to operate on you. You need Jesus: the Great Physician. He is the Doctor who will heal you if you admit you have heart burn, heart attacks, high cholesterol, and heart problems.
Has Jesus given you a heart transplant?
But what the Bible has to say about our hearts is not so great. Oh, God doesn't beat up on our physical hearts, but our spiritual hearts. Jeremiah 17:9 says the heart is wicked above all things. And if you're wondering where adulteries, murders, thefts, and evil thoughts come from, look no further than the heart, Matthew 15:19 declares. We are creatures of the heart: we do what we want, which is a problem because our hearts wantevil things.
As John Trapp would say, the heart is a den of dragons, a dungeon of darkness, a sty and stable for every foul lust.
But take heart! You are not doomed! In Ezekiel 36:26, God promises His people a new heart: a heart with new power, new standards, new motives, and new desires.
God promises to remove our stony hearts and put in us hearts of flesh. I'm not talking about heart surgery. I'm talking about a heart transplant. God doesn't fix up your old heart, but gives you a new one altogether. He takes out your hard heart which is made of concrete, and gives you a new heart of wet cement, so that every time He touches it, it makes an impression.
How do you get this new heart?
You can't do it by yourself, that's for sure, any more than you could do a physical heart transplant on your own body. You need a doctor to operate on you. You need Jesus: the Great Physician. He is the Doctor who will heal you if you admit you have heart burn, heart attacks, high cholesterol, and heart problems.
Has Jesus given you a heart transplant?
Sinners cannot obey the gospel, any more than the law, without renewal of heart.
- J.I. Packer
- J.I. Packer
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