A Healthy Heart

The slate of a new year stands fresh and clean before me.  What new promises to myself will I write on it?

I should write, “Eat healthier.”  I meant to do that, and for the first few days I even succeeded.  Selecting nutritious foods.  Exercising self-control.  But then, as I stood in the checkout line at my favorite little market, I noticed them.  The papery-thin dark chocolate almond cookies.  Well, there went my resolve.  Mmmmm!  They were worth every delicious calorie!

I should write, “Exercise more” on that little list.  I do enjoy being outside, and generally I try to exercise a few times a week.  But alas, the temperature has dropped well below freezing, the wind has become bitter, and the sidewalks are now slippery with a slick icy coat.  Much too treacherous for exercise.  Somehow the cozy chair next to my fireplace seems much more inviting.  And besides, I need to stay indoors where I can finish off that box of papery-thin dark chocolate almond cookies.  So much for a healthy start to my new year.  Sigh.

And that’s just the physical goals.  The aspirations that relate to the temporary things, like the body’s health, are really not that essential when compared to all of eternity.  So what about my spiritual health?  Are my heart and soul becoming fit?  Sometimes I feel stuck.  You know, like I am still struggling with the same “issues” today that needed work 25 years ago.  How can I grow?  How can I continue to become more like Christ?  Maybe if I just try harder, or have more will-power and self-discipline.  Then maybe I could get past the first few days of sticking to my resolutions.

Going to church every Sunday certainly helps.  I love, love, love my pastor, how he faithfully explains God’s truths each week.  How he breaks down difficult Scriptures into bite-size pieces, helping slow-learners like me be able to understand.  However, healthy growth requires daily nourishment, and if the only time my soul is being nourished is on Sunday mornings, it will surely starve.

And books.  I enjoy reading books that challenge my thinking and remind me of the things I should be learning.  My never-enough-space bookshelves are overflowing with wonderful volumes just waiting for my mind to digest.  Even so, reading all those books will not be enough to help my heart to become fit. 

It’s like the catalogs that arrive in my mailbox every month – the ones with the impossibly thin models in their impossibly complex yoga poses.  I love to look at the pictures and imagine how my body could ever twist into those pretzel-like contortions, knowing, of course, that it never will.  Looking at the pictures, longing for it to be so, doesn’t make me any more flexible and limber.  Likewise, reading books, even well-written books written by godly Bible scholars, can not re-shape my soul or re-form my heart.

What about my friends?  My best-friend and I have exchanged literally thousands of texts, e-mails, and phone calls over the years.  When we are together, the tears flow and the laughter erupts, sometimes within moments of each other.  When the dark cloud descends or when I need a listening ear or when I am seeking advice, she is the first person I call.  She stops everything she is doing to pray with me.  But even her wise, Biblical counsel and sweet camaraderie are not enough to help me become the person God has intended me to be.

So what is it?  What will it take for my heart to grow and thrive and flourish?  To become whole and godly and pure and holy?  Philippians 2:13 answers that question. . .

“God is working in you,

giving you the desire to obey Him

and the power to do what pleases Him” (NLT).

It is GOD who is working in me.  On my own, I can never summon up enough strength to mature my heart.  No matter how deeply I dig, no matter how firm my resolve, I will, sadly, continue to sin.  I will never find enough self-discipline to become holy.

However, the growth of my heart isn’t fully dependent on me and my feeble resolutions that are sure to fail.  It is GOD who is at work in me!  The same all-powerful, eternal GOD who created the world ex nihilo, out of nothing, with only His breath, is the same One who breathes life into my empty soul.  I give Him chaos and with it He creates beauty. 

With His hands, the same hands that divided the water from the sky, the light from the dark, He carefully, gently, purifies my soul.  He separates the light from the dark.  He removes the things that stunt my growth and damage my heart.  The guilt and shame?  He forgives them.  The sinful responses that, because I excuse them, have become habits?  The lies and foolishness of human philosophy that I have mistaken for truth?  He exposes them and uses the scalpel of His Word to cut them away, leaving room for new growth.  GOD does that!

God IS working in me.  Present tense.  Now.  Today. 

Yes, He has worked in the past.  He chose me long, long ago, even before the foundation of the world, to become holy and blameless (Ephesians 1:4).

In the past, more than two thousand years ago He sent His Son to take the punishment that my guilt deserved (1 John 4:9-10).  My account has been stamped, “Paid in Full.”  That work is forever finished.

But today, this very moment, God IS working in me.  Molding me and shaping me.  Creating something beautiful.  Making me spiritually healthy.

How is He working?  What is He doing?  He GIVES ME THE DESIRE TO OBEY HIM.  In my own limited wisdom, my own finite understanding, I want to do things my way.  I want to think and feel and believe in ways that come naturally.  For example, God says, “Do not be anxious about anything . . . the peace of God will guard your heart and mind” (Philippians 4:6-7).  My usual reply?  “No. I don’t believe You.  I refuse to trust that Your promise is true.  I choose, instead, to allow fear and anxiety and worry to dwell in my heart and mind.”

How I thank God that He is more powerful than my obstinance!  He is working to replace my self-sufficiency with THE DESIRE TO OBEY HIM.  He puts that desire in my heart.  Like the world of long ago, my heart was empty and void, dark and unformed.  He is giving it form and order, filling it with the longing to become like Christ.

And He does even more than that.  Not only does the desire come from Him, HE GIVES ME THE POWER TO DO IT!  I want to eat nutritious food.  I want to exercise.  But my flesh fails me.  Those papery-thin dark chocolate almond cookies will get me every time.  In the same way, I desire to obey God.  I long to be conformed to His image.  But that’s not enough.  My heart is weak.  It fails me.  I need HIS POWER to live in a way that pleases Him. 

Thankfully, He promises to give me that power.  "His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness" (2 Peter 1:3).  It is His power at work in me!

The same almighty GOD who holds the world in His hands, is the same One who holds my life.  He is working even now to help me become mature and whole, full of joy and hope and peace.  He is giving me a desire to please Him. 

My flesh is weak.  My resolve fails.  But God, the creator of the universe never fails.  With His hands at work in me, I can be assured of a healthy heart.