God Wants You To Have A Healthy Heart

God Wants You to Have a Healthy Heart

Sunday, March 16, 2014

We live in a world that is filled with hurting people. There are so many ways that people can be hurt and most of the world around them would never see the pain they bear. The physical pain that many suffer from injuries or some type of disease that causes a lifetime of suffering are the most visible, and they are often debilitating, but in many ways, the physical pain is much easier to deal with than the other types of hurting that are unseen.

I wonder how many of you here right now are suffering from emotional pain? You do a good job of covering it up. You’ve learned how to put on a smile, wear a mask in public and go about your business, hoping that no one around you can see the real you on the inside. We all go through those times when our emotions get the best of us.

I’ve seen even the strongest man cry in times of great distress and sadness, or become capable of killing even that which he loves in a moment of heated anger.

I’ve seen mothers cry over their children who have caused emotional damage through saying or doing things that leave her distraught and wondering where she could have gone so wrong in raising her child.

I’ve seen children whose emotions are so mixed up and so hurt that they are nearly dysfunctional in society. Sometimes it’s the parents, or friends, or perhaps another sibling that does something terrible, or continually says something, or does something that makes a child feel so unworthy, so useless and so unloved.

In our time there is a great emphasis being placed upon the fact that there is so much bullying going on in our schools, on the job, in sports and I suppose anywhere in life where people are interacting with one another.

Bullying isn’t something new. When you think about it, I doubt if there is one person in this crowd who hasn’t either been bullied or been a bully at some point in your life. Bullying has been around since the creation of man and I don’t think we could ever eradicate it, no matter how many laws we pass.

The problem is that in order to stop bullying we have to focus on the condition of the heart, not upon the action that it produces. As long as there is a black heart, filled with the sins of pride, envy, greed, jealousy and everything else that can trigger bullying, then the action of bullying will never go away.

One of the greatest preachers of the 19th century, Rev. Charles Spurgeon, spoke forth a message in which he said:

“Man is a double being: he is composed of body and soul, and each of the portions of man may receive injury and hurt. The wounds of the body are extremely painful, and if they amount to a breaking of bones the pain is terrible indeed. Yet God has in his mercy provided means whereby wounds may be healed and injuries to the body repaired.

When a wounded soldier who comes from the battlefield, he knows that he will find the hand of a surgeon to remove any object that has wounded his body, and there are healing medicines that can be used to treat his wounds. Though the pain may be great, and the suffering last a long time, yet there may yet come a day when he can resume a full and productive life.

When the body is stricken by a sickness or a disease and it becomes too painful and uncomfortable to allow us to rest and get well on our own, and our prayers for God’s healing hand aren’t answered quickly, there are few among us who won’t seek out a doctor to help us find relief.

The pain of the body is easily recognized and often easier to treat than the pain of the heart and soul. Yet the pain of the heart can be so much greater and have a greater impact upon our lives!

How much more should we cry out to God for help when we are hurt spiritually? How much quicker should we turn to God in the times of the distress of our hearts, when the heart is broken and the spirit is wounded so deeply that it’s nearly impossible to express. How quickly and sincerely should we cry out to “The Great Physician”, knowing that he has the power to deliver, to heal and to set us free!”

When your heart is broken, your spirit is crushed, your emotional being is damaged and the pain of bearing all of this hurt becomes unbearable, there is a suffering that is far greater than a broken bone; and that pain is very hard to overcome! It’s a pain that never goes away; a pain that no physician can heal with an ointment though they may try to mask the pain with mind altering medication; and this deep-down, unseen but terrible hurt will often leave us is a place where we unable to perform even the simplest tasks of life without severe limitations.