good enough (part 1)

The heart.  It must be the most talked about, analysed and romanticised part of us, and for good reason.  After all, the two most important things we’ll ever do in life require our heart.  We need it to find God, and we need it to love God:

“You will seek me [God] and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jer 29:13 NIV)

“Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” (Deut 6:5, NIV)

And it’s the heart that God’s interested in:

“… Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” (1 Sam 16:7, NIV)

The heart really is at the heart of all things.  It’s who a person really is, and how we see our hearts is how we see ourselves –  “As water reflects a face, so a man’s heart reflects the man.” (Prov 27:19, NIV)

Many people view their heart based on a verse from Jeremiah:

“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.  Who can understand it?” (Jer 17:9, NIV)

But God’s answer to a deceitful heart has always been, and still is, in a sense, a heart transplant.

“I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.” (Eze 11:19, NIV)

“Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.  For why should you die, O house of Israel?” (Eze 18:31, NIV)

A new heart and a new spirit are at the start of our transformation into new life.  For whoever is in Christ “… is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”  (2 Cor 5:17, NIV)  That includes a new heart – and a good one at that, which we’ll need if we’re going to grow in God.  As Jesus said when he explained the Parable of the Sower (Lk 8:5-8, NIV):

“But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.” (Lk 8:15, NIV)

And because we have a new heart God’s willing to fulfil its desires:  “Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” (Ps 37:4, NIV)

If God’s happy to go with our hearts, then perhaps they’re good enough.

– Joseph Koh

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