He Knows Your Heart by Lisa Burkhardt Worley
Search me, O God, and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
What is your heart condition? I was aware of physical heart conditions very early on in life after my father died of a massive heart attack at age 39, two months before I was born. When I made it to 40, that was a huge birthday celebration for me. However when God is speaking about the heart in the Bible, it has a different meaning
God is really talking about the core of our inner being. Who are we really? While we might appear nice on the outside, what are we thinking on the inside? Our hearts can break, they can be evil, they can harbor resentment or they can be angry. Conversely, they can be contrite, they can be loving, they can be pure and they can be beautiful.
It is comforting that when we are judged or misunderstood, God knows our hearts. I want to have a good heart, don’t you? Most days when I wake up in the morning, I pray the words from Psalm 51:10: Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. It is my desire to have a pure heart. I know because I am a sinful, broken creature, I have to pray that God creates a pure heart in me, because on my own, I cannot have the kind of heart that pleases God.
Proverbs 4:23 says, Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
The heart can be attacked and we must protect it. John Eldridge, in his book, Waking the Dead, speaks about the heart, and he believes, like I do, that we have an enemy that goes after the heart with a vengeance. He says, “For if he can disable or deaden your heart, then he has effectively foiled the plan of God, which was to create a world where love reigns. By taking out your heart, the Enemy takes out you, and you are essential to the Story.
Think about it. Your enemy doesn’t want you to love. The enemy doesn’t want you to have a secure heart. The enemy doesn’t want you to be pure. If you have a broken heart, he wants you to dwell on that, rather than move forward in the victory that Christ provides. No wonder God says, Above all else guard your heart. It needs to be a priority. If all your arteries are blocked, then God’s love can’t flow through to others.
Periodically, it’s important to do a self examination. Ask God, “What is the condition of my heart?” “Does it need some holy surgery?” We might be able to hide the truth from others but God sees the real state of our hearts. It is my hope and prayer that when the Lord looks at my heart, he says a heart that is good. If not, “Please make it clean Lord. Make it clean, because my heart belongs to you.”