from the heart

Our Christianity and our lives are to come from the heart. We're to guard our hearts, since all we do flows from it. In "the Jesus Creed" we find that we're to love God with all our heart along with all the rest of us.

I have to admit that so much of what I do I so often don't feel like doing. Of course "heart" in the Old Testament (and carried over at least to some extent into the New Testament, I believe) includes our thoughts and will, along with something of emotion or feelings. Though the Hebrew expression for emotion is more like, literally one's inward parts as in, we would say, our guts. I do think "heart" in the New Testament does pick up a little more on feelings, though we still have a different word even there which means "affections" or feelings (again literally, inward parts).

I see heart as what makes me tick, or an inward disposition. We need to lose heart in sinning or sinfulness, while gaining heart in righteousness or in doing God's will. This is surely a work of God in grace, at the same time including our walk in faith. It is also a matter of growth. Yes, at times we'll think that it seems our hearts are changed, but the real change normally comes over time so that we're changed into a new person more as to the direction we're going rather than as in having arrived.

Loving God from my heart, as well as my soul, mind and strength. It begins with the heart. If our heart is in it, than we'll live it out. If not, then we have to confess that before God, and ask for his forgiveness, cleansing, and for a change of heart. A broken and contrite heart, God will never despise.

What would you add to this exercise in thinking about what it means to live from the heart?