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“For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh” (Matthew 12:34b).

A recent commercial for a credit card asks, “What’s in your wallet?” But Jesus asks in many places in the Bible, “What’s in your heart?”

Here are a few physical attributes of one’s heart:

The average adult heart beats 72 times a minute; that’s 100,000 times a day. A healthy heart (11oz) pumps 2,000 gallons of blood through 60,000 miles of blood vessels each day. Because the heart has its own electrical impulse, it can continue to beat even when separated from the body, if it has an adequate supply of oxygen.

During an average lifetime, the heart will pump 1.5 million barrels of blood, which is enough to fill 200 train tank cars. The heart begins beating at four weeks after conception and does not stop until death.

In 1967, Dr. Christian Barnaard transplanted a human heart into the body of Louis Washansky. Although the recipient lived only 18 days, it is considered the first successful heart transplant. (By the way, the physical heart that God gives us lasts a long time.) All of the blood in your body travels through your heart once every minute.

The heart is mentioned in the Bible over 900 times but does not always refer to the ‘physical’ human heart. Rather, the heart is meant to describe the spiritual part of us where our emotions and desires dwell (i.e., one having a heart for God). When we receive Christ (John 1:12), God makes us new creatures (2 Corinthians 5:17) and gives us a brand-new heart.

Jesus said “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind” (Matthew 22:37). God wants our hearts!

Followers of Christ: What’s in your heart?

How has your heart been with other believers? Have you berated or belittled anyone recently?

How do the lost see you? Can they distinguish you from the world?

When you see others perishing or struggling in sin, do you lovingly warn them
(i.e., alcohol / drug users, people in adultery and other sexual sins, thieves, hands that shed innocent blood, abusers of others, etc.)?

Are you willing to help others you see with needs that you can provide? The needy are everywhere; ask God to show them to you.

If you have the kind of heart that Christ wants us to have, we should be concerned with all of these points and more. As I was led to write this, I find myself lacking in many ways. Reading Romans 9:2, Paul writes “That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.”

“Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10).

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