Heart Disease

It shows itself gradually, unveiling it’s presence in the midst of the everyday with hints before making a dramatic and sometimes fatal entrance.

Heart disease kills thousands everyday. Some say it is a product of out of control consumerism, some put it down to diet, others genetics.  Many turn to regular exercise to keep it at bay – good living sorts out a bad heart.

I’m not talking about physical heart disease (though the above is also true there) but the heart of the heart – the centre of the human self.  People talk about being sick at heart – what’s the cure for it?  Is there one?

God’s word is unequivocal (Jer 17:5-10)

This is what the LORD says:
       "Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
       who depends on flesh for his strength
       and whose heart turns away from the LORD.

⁶ He will be like a bush in the wastelands;
       he will not see prosperity when it comes.
       He will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
       in a salt land where no one lives.

⁷ "But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
       whose confidence is in him.

⁸ He will be like a tree planted by the water
       that sends out its roots by the stream.
       It does not fear when heat comes;
       its leaves are always green.
       It has no worries in a year of drought
       and never fails to bear fruit."

⁹ The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.
       Who can understand it?

¹⁰ "I the LORD search the heart
       and examine the mind,
       to reward a man according to his conduct,
       according to what his deeds deserve."

God alone sees and knows the human heart: God alone can heal it.  Is there a cure on offer?  Maybe religion? 

NO! Religion is nothing more than the attempt of a sick heart to pull down God’s blessing.  Religion begins in the sickness of the heart – it is a symptom of it rather than a cure for it.

No; the only - and I do mean ONLY – cure for the heart sickness that pervades humanity across languages and cultures and times and continents: is wrapped up in Jesus.  Jesus you see is the God who knows the human heart and provides healing for it’s woes and weakness. Jesus teaches in Matthew 11 and (excuse the pun) gets to the heart of the matter…

¹⁶"To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others:
¹⁷" 'We played the flute for you,
      and you did not dance;
   we sang a dirge
      and you did not mourn.' ¹⁸For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon.' ¹⁹The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and "sinners." ' But wisdom is proved right by her actions.”…   ²⁵At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. ²⁶Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.

²⁷"All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

²⁸"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Feeling the sickness of your heart? Don’t turn to religion, to being good, to living well – turn to Jesus in repentance, trust and faithful hope. Turn and be healed!

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. Romans 5:1-11)