Heart Defect

Examine me, O LORD, and try me; Test my mind and my heart. Psalm 26:2 NASB

When a middle-aged American entered hospital for a few routine tests there was a surprise in store for him, and his doctors. Everything went well until a chest x-ray revealed a rather startling and unusual problem. This man suffered from the previously un-diagnosed condition known as situs inversus viscerum which is Latin for “inverted position of the internal organs”. All of his major organs including his heart were mirror images of their normal positions in the human body…simply put his heart was in the wrong place!

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I have suffered from the spiritual equivalent of this condition… There have been times when I have thought that I was in a “good place” with the Lord, when I wasn’t, or when I have felt that I was doing much better in a certain area of my life than I had previously been, or even that my efforts at “walking with God” were better than those whom I have been fellow-shipping with. Spiritual superiority…it’s deadly dangerous to our eternal well-being. 

Whenever we feel that we are in a “secure place” in our relationship with God we are usually knocking on the front door of a very dangerous place indeed! The reality is that the dark lord wants us to be contented and satisfied with where we are. He wants us to compare ourselves to others and feel confident that we’ve “made it”.

Usually the truth is somewhat different… God wills us to continually strive to become more like Him -- not a clone of the person we sit next to at church, nor our pastor or other persons of esteem in our fellowship. He wants us to be like Him… It’s only when we arrive at a place of humbleness and total dependence upon Him that we can be sure that our heart is truly in the right place.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Psalm 51:10 NASB

If that verse is an honest cry of our own, then we need to examine our hearts, searching for any defects… and be prepared to deal with them! Notice that David asked God to create a new heart, not fix his old one… King David knew the secret of successfully dealing with his pride and sin… nothing short of a new heart would do! David called for God to transplant His heart into David’s chest cavity.   

Likewise we need a heart transplant…In the words of the Christian author, Max Lucado, “God loves you just the way you are, but He refuses to leave you that way. He wants you to be just like Jesus”. There is only one to achieve this… we, like King Saul, need to be given a new heart.

And when [Saul] had turned his back to leave Samuel, God gave him another heart, and all these signs came to pass that day. 1 Samuel 10:19 Amplified Bible

If you and I were motor vehicles, God would want control of our engines; if we were computers, almighty God would want to be the operating system that controls our hard drives. If we were aircraft, Almighty God would want to be in control of the flight-deck. However, we are not any of those things; therefore God wants to operate on our hearts. Almighty God wants us to have a heart just like His Son, Jesus Christ!

Let your imagination wander… what would it be like to wake up tomorrow morning, with Christ’s beating heart filling your chest? Imagine His love and compassion flowing out of you…His priorities directing every word that you speak, every action you take, His passions and emotions replacing yours… what do you think your life would be like? Would people notice the difference, what kind of changes would (have to) happen to the way you live?

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right, persevering, and steadfast spirit within me. Psalm 51:10 Amplified Bible