Lewis Memorial UMC

A week or so ago I visited someone in the hospital. He’s a member of this church and he was having some heart problems. He has some sort of irregular heart beat and for the second time in about 6 or 7 months he was in the hospital for the same reason – his heart! Now this is not uncommon as this kind of thing happens probably every day to people. The uncommon part is that this man is only 24 years old. It got me thinking about heart trouble and thoughts of my family history of heart problems and my own heart trouble three and a half years ago.

The Bible tells us a lot about the human heart. The first story I think of about the heart in the Bible is in the Old Testament book of 1 Samuel. In the 16th chapter the Lord sent Samuel to Bethlehem to find Jesse and choose one of his sons to be the new king of Israel. After meeting the first of Jesse’s 8 sons Samuel thought for sure this one was the one – He was big and strong and handsome and from all outside appearances He just HAD to be it! But God reminded Samuel that “The Lord does not look at the outward appearance, but He looks at what is on the inside – the heart!” All we have to do is read the book of Psalms and we will read verse after verse about the ways of our heart. Proverbs talks about the heart as does Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs. Jesus had a lot to say about the human heart, as did the Apostle Paul after Him. Every time I read a story or a passage in the Bible about the heart I find myself wondering about my own heart. I think mostly about the kind of heart trouble I have at different times in my life and in my ministry. I’m not talking about a physical kind of heart trouble, but spiritual.

Maybe this is not common, but I wonder sometimes if I am doing my best as a husband, a father, a pastor, and a child of God. Am I giving it my all? Is my whole heart into being the best husband, father, pastor, and Christian that I can be? Is my passion for the Lord as strong as it should be? Have you ever seen someone attempting to do a task and their heart just was not in it…….. A co-worker…… a child doing chores……….. An athlete….? Has this ever happened to you? Maybe you were doing some chore around your house or at your work, or maybe even in your church and others just were not doing their part. Or maybe that person was you!

It is obvious when we do something and our heart is just not in it. The results are also obvious in the task we are attempting to finish. The work doesn’t look real good. Everyone can tell in our mannerisms and in our faces when we do something half-hearted. As I look back upon my life I can see myself doing things half-hearted more as a child and youth then as an adult. That should be the case for most of as we grow in age and in maturity.

What do you do to get your heart into something at home or at work? Different people have different methods that work for them to help them get into whatever they are trying to do. Some people find some kind of motivational tool to get them into whatever their task is. Some folks concentrate on the rewards of finishing the task, or the day, or the week so they can get to the weekend. Some people remind themselves that they are just blessed to have a job, or a family, or a home to take care of.

What about in your church? What motivates you to come to Lewis Memorial? The Psalmist reminds all of us this morning that the best way to keep our hearts pure and clean and out of trouble is to get into God’s word! Look with me once again at our scripture reading in Psalm 119.

This is the longest, single chapter in the Bible – 176 verses, and in it David wrote a lot about God’s laws and about the heart. Look with me again at Psalm 119, verse 2….7….10….11. David placed in the same sentences how important it is to have God’s Word in our hearts! Sometimes we have spiritual heart trouble because we are NOT into God’s Holy Word. Now look down at verses 14 – 16, “I delight in the way of your decrees as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts, and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.”

When we neglect the Word of God then we just might follow the wrong statutes and meditate on the wrong precepts and rejoice in the wrong decrees! When we stay away from God’s Word and God’s way we find ourselves more into the ways of the world and our hearts can sometimes start to have spiritual troubles. Some people are into their Bibles each and every day, but surveys tell us that this is not a majority of the people.

It is in God’s Word where we find hope and strength to get us through each day. It is in God’s Word where see the struggles of early Christians and learn from their successes and their failures. It is in God’s Holy, inspired Word where we can receive a peace that passes all understanding and a mind and heart knowledge of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I believe we get spiritual heart trouble when we neglect our Bibles and we rejoice, meditate, and delight in the ways of the world instead.

We get more passionate in our hearts and feelings sometimes about our favorite sports teams then we do in worshipping the Lord! We get more passionate in our hearts sometimes about our love for our families and even for ourselves then we do about praising Jesus Christ! And I believe it happens to all of us at some point or another in our lives.

The Apostle Paul wrote many letters to the early Christians and to the pastors in the churches to help motivate them when their passion for the Lord and doing His will and work started to weaken. So, how do we get motivated in our hearts for Jesus Christ when we stray - when we stray from God’s Word, from reading our Bibles, from God’s call in our lives, and from our church?

2 answers – prayer and Bible! A healthy prayer life and a consistent dose of God’s Word can help us when we suffer from spiritual heart trouble. We were reminded of that yesterday in our prayer event we had here at the church. Susan Norris quoted the Bible when talking about prayer more than any other source she used. God knows our hearts and He knows where we have been and He wants us to come to Him with every situation in our life. Our passion, our fire, our commitment for God and the church will grow when we pray more and when we get into the Bible more often.

A song came out back in the 90’s that speaks perfectly about the need to have God fan the flame within us when our passion for Him gets low. Light the Fire is the name of it. The first verse says, “I stand to praise You, But I fall to my knees. My spirit is willing, but my flesh is so weak. So light the fire in my soul, Fan the flame that makes me whole. Lord, You know just where I've been so light the fire in my heart again.”

Are you suffering from spiritual heart trouble today? Then increase your prayer life, read your Bible more, and ask God to fan the flame in your heart today.