Christian Living

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Broken Hearted

11Teach me Your way, O Lord, that I may walk and live in Your truth; direct and unite my heart [solely, reverently] to fear and honor Your name. -Psalm 86:11 (AMP)

This is the cry of David in Psalm 86. It is his prayer, his plea, his petition. The Psalms are loaded with such prayers and pleas from David as well as his rejoicings. The NIV version reads slightly different:

11 Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. (NIV)

In the NIV, David is crying out for an undivided heart. The fascinating thing about this passage is found in the Hebrew translation of the word heart:
Lebab; heart; thus conscience, courage, mind, understanding

This is the same translation of heart as in the Scripture in Deuteronomy 6:5,
5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. (NIV)

Now we sing the lyrics, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and all your strength”.

The word soul in the commandment is:

Nepes; soul, life, self; person, someone
According to Scripture, the heart here encompasses your conscience, your courage, your mind and your understanding. David understood the completeness of this fact.

He was literally pleading with God to unite his heart to follow Him. And according to what the Lord handed down to Moses, He requires it.
Lost in translation, is putting it mildly, when we really start to compare what we read against what is meant.

Have you ever really thought about your heart being all of these things at once? Or has it basically boiled down to how you feel?

Have we tucked our conscience away into the soul category? Jiminy Crickets, we have even made that to be something separate from ourselves. Nonetheless, your soul is not your heart; therefore your conscience shouldn’t be there anyway.

Courage? I believe that for the most part we would find that the closest place we relate courage to would be in the heart. Although people’s interpretations of what courageous actually is can become quite skewed.

When we think of the word mind, do we not automatically think of the head? We have so many terms for the mind: in my mind’s eye, the mind is a terrible thing to waste, mind yourself. But according to Scripture, your mind is part of your heart.

Understanding is so often mislabeled. The fact is that many try to equate understanding with knowledge. Understanding can only come through experience. The reason so many are failing in the understanding arena is that they are trying to wrap their head around something that belongs to the heart.

Why does any of this matter? Too many people are walking around broken hearted, misinformed and hopeless.

If you went to the doctor and he informed you that you were going to need a heart transplant in order to live and then proceeded to tell you that they were going to place a brain where your heart should be, what would you do? Can you honestly say that you would proceed because he was the doctor and knew best? I seriously doubt it.

What if you accidentally cut off a single toe? Upon arriving at the hospital they told you they could replace the missing member, but with a finger? Would you actually consider it? Well why not? After all, it’s only one little finger down there; it can’t be that different, maybe nobody will notice, right? Sure.

Maybe you didn’t realize that the heart is actually a whole functioning unit by the combination of all of these things. I didn’t, but I do now.

Everyone knows about duct tape. And usually it is preceded or followed by some kind of redneck joke. You’re laughing because I’m right. But what is the truth behind it? Duct tape is a quick fix for a problem that needs further attention or repair to function properly.

Christmas is Sunday. How many bicycles, toys, presents will be put together, without really reading the instructions? Aw, come on, you know what you’re doing! It’s common sense right? So what, there are a couple of screws left in the box, they’re extras. Are you going to stand on that if your kid’s bike tire flies off going downhill? If that happens, will you be standing there saying the gift was “just junk”?

Are we walking around broken hearted by choice? Do you have the instruction manual and although you have glanced over it, has it been set aside for common sense?

Is there a gift, a knick knack, a piece of china, maybe a trophy, that if it were broken you would be “emotional to say the least”? Would you find yourself on your hands and knees, scouring the floor for each and every piece, carefully super gluing each piece back into its proper place? Why does your heart deserve any less?

David recognized what we need to, what exactly the heart consists of. He also knew where to go in order to get a professional opinion and solution. Straight to the Maker!

18The Lord is close to those who are of a broken heart and saves such as are crushed with sorrow for sin and are humbly and thoroughly penitent. –Psalm 34:18 (AMP)

We know where to get the best pizza, greatest deals, newest clothes, and nicest cars. We have the best doctors, hairstylists and gyms. We have the most recent software, phones and Franklin Day Planners to keep everything organized in place. What about your heart?

Only He knows exactly where everything goes. Only He can repair what has been broken and put the pieces back in place. His office is never crowded and you don’t have to wait two months to get in. Are you ready to make an appointment?

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