The Heart Matters
There are reports of patients who received heart transplants experiencing alterations in personality, food preferences, and attitudes. According to some medical research, the heart has a memory independent of the cranial brain. This would mean that the heart, although connected to the brain in the same way as other parts of the human body, is capable of retaining memories, having preferences, etc.
Medical research is discovering what the Scriptures have known all along: The heart matters for more than just beating and providing blood flow to the body. Our experiences register in our hearts—trauma registers in the heart as well as in the brain, as do happy and wonderful things.
We truly are, as Scripture states, “Fearfully and wonderfully made by God.” Let’s consider a few passages regarding the heart.
Romans 6:17 But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered.
This is referencing the gospel Paul preached—a New Covenant Kingdom gospel of grace.
Romans 10:10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
A mental assent to the truth does not produce new creation reality. Merely making converts who cannot bring themselves to argue against the truth intellectually does not make a new creation. A new creation is a work of the heart.
Ezekiel 36:26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
The promise of new life coming through a Messiah involved a new heart, not just a change of mind. A change of mind is very important, and I do not dismiss that fact. However, I also do not dismiss the importance of a heart change. Once we receive a heart change, how we attend to it is equally important.
Hebrews 13:9 Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines. For it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them.
Just as the kind of nourishment we give our bodies is important for good heart health, the kind of instruction we permit to access our minds and hearts is just as important. It is good that the heart be established with grace. Why should this be especially important to us as believers in Jesus?
Proverbs 13:12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.
Grace gives birth to hope, while legalism and law-based motivations lead to disappointment and death. Because the heart matters, the New Covenant Gospel is of the utmost importance to all believers, whether they realize it or not. Your heart matters! Give it the grace needed for optimal health.
