Some may be silently mournful in a season where everyone seems joyous and festive. In a time when some people enjoy the company of family and friends, those without such relationships feel the loneliest. For some, it is the time when heartbreaks are felt most intensely. During these times of joy, some remember how things used to be with loved ones who have passed. In those situations, individuals long for unreachable loved ones – those who are overseas and can’t come home – children who are married into other families – fathers and mothers who started new and other families. It is at such times that they remember the great relationships that used to be. In such seasons, orphans miss their parents, widows miss their husbands and widowers miss their wives. For those individuals, the heart is a place of grief and despair during such times. During such vulnerability, maximum care must be taken to protect it from destruction.
The heart is the most important part of the body. While it can function without the brain, even the brain is useless without the heart. It transmits oxygen to every vessel, every organ, every muscle, the physical heart, that is. There is no bodily function without it.
However, I am not speaking of the contractile muscle in the cavity of your chest that pumps blood throughout your body, but rather, the center of emotion, reasoning and judgement. I am speaking of the psychological and spiritual heart today. Essentially, What I am asking you to do is to protect your mind. Proverbs 4:23 “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”
Your dreams, your fear, your anxieties, your forgiveness, your humility, your peace, your generosity, your affection, kindness, Love and hate, all stem from the heart. And yes, your relationship with God. The health of your heart is paramount to your spiritual well-being.
Things that can compromise your heart:
In addition to loneliness and loss, there are everyday circumstances that can damage your heart. If you are not careful, Economics or insecurity can ruin that emotional centre. Worrying about how the next bill will be paid could render your heart fainted or fearful, or impede and defer your dreams and life goals. As such, your faith can be weakened. Injustice could cause a loss of heart: leaves your heart hopeless – robs you of the belief that good things will happen. Strained relationships and disappointments could render your heart broken (Maxwell Leadership).
Combating ills of the heart.
For the fainted heart: Tired, weary and fearful that success is eluding you? Take time to slow down and rest in the Lord. Patience is the cure. They that wait upon the lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint (Isaiah 40:31). Psalms 27:14 – Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.
Loss of heart is when you lose your hope in what you could achieve, what you could be. Your dreams are deferred or put on hold. But hope in Jesus gives your heart renewed strength. The song: my hope is built on nothing less but Jesus’ name and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest flame but wholly lean on Jesus’ name. To protect yourself from loss of heart, you need to find ways to maintain or reignite your hope. In that vein, Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
Mending a broken heart
A broken heart is often caused by rejection, disappointment or lost love.
Broken heart syndrome, a condition characterized by sudden dysfunction of part of the left ventricle of the heart, accompanied by symptoms resembling those of a heart attack but occurring in the absence of significant coronary artery disease. Typically attributed to stressful events, the condition is usually transient (Mayo Clinic).
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
To stay a broken heart, your aspirations must transcend the natural. It must capture the spiritual and eternal. If the focus is on the temporal, the here and now. A broken heart can stick and even lead to physical or emotional or even spiritual danger, but if we set our mind on the things above, we will receive a glad heart. Colossians 3:1-2: “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above… Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. They that worship me must worship in spirit…
Wising up the foolish heart
The foolish heart: Such a heart neglects to recognize God as an integral force of life. The fool has said in his heart there is no God (Psalm 14). But even those of us who abstain from a dynamic relationship with him, risk a foolish heart. Saying lord, lord with your lips but denying his impact on your life is equivalent to denying his existence (Matthew 7:21). Job 17: 4 “For You have kept their heart from understanding, Therefore You will not exalt them.”
Melting the hard heart
The hard heart: Maybe someone has hurt you, someone may have used you or even abused your kindness to the point that you neglect your relationship with God.
Scriptures about the heart. Proverbs 17:22 – A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. Proverbs 27:19 – As water reflects a face, so a man’s heart reflects the man. Proverbs 28:14 – Blessed is the man who always fears the LORD, but he who hardens his heart falls into trouble. For the hard heart, if we return, then He will bring us back (Jeremiah 15:19; Hosea 14:1-4).
Your Heart is you, your spiritual health. For this season, preserve, protect, defend, shield, shelter and keep it. Guard it!