Heart is a major internal organ of the human body. The main function of the heart is to pump blood to retain life in the body. If heart stops beating or stops pumping, death occurs. So if we desire to live long, we should make sure our heart is in good condition. By regular exercise and eating healthy food we can keep our heart and body fit. We all know this physical aspect of heart fitness.
What about spiritual? Is heart fitness important spiritually? In fact spiritual heart fitness is more important than physical, as our entire eternity depends on it.
Let us open our treasure book to find clues on spiritual heart fitness.
OPENING THE TREASURE BOOK 
Why is heart fitness important spiritually?
Clue 1: For God our heart and its contents matter
I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.
Jeremiah 17: 10
For God, our HEART matters the most. He searches our heart to see it’s content. Also 1 Samuel 16:7 confirms that the Lord doesn’t look at outward appearance but He accepts people based on their heart’s content. To be acceptable in the sight of God, our heart should be fit – kept clean and good. You can read more about this on What does God notice in me?.
Because the heart matters the most to God, it also plays an important role in the plan of salvation He has for human kind.
For our spirit to be saved or redeemed from eternal doom, first action from our side is to repent. To repent is to turn our mind away from sins and to take a U-Turn from our sinful ways. Then we accept Jesus as our Lord and savior.
If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Romans10:9-10
For accepting Jesus as our Lord and savior, we have to first BELIEVE in our HEART that God raised Him from dead and then confess with our mouth. First heart should believe and then out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth will confess / speak. Jesus is the only way to get to eternal life. If your heart is full of unbelief and not fit to believe in Jesus as your savior, then your eternity is at risk! Believe in Christ, be saved and secure your eternity!!!
In the process of getting saved, we do not see transformation right away in any person because it happens at the HEART – the inside. The transformation slowly surfaces on the outside. Changes will soon be seen in one’s character.
Is heart and character of a person connected?
Clue 2: Our heart determines our Character
As in water face reflects face, So a man’s heart reveals the man.
Proverbs 27:19
A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
Luke 6:45
As a mirror reflects our looks, a man’s heart reveals his character. If our heart is filled with goodness then we bring forth good actions whereas if our heart is filled with evil then we bring forth evil actions. Also the mouth speaks out of the abundance of our heart. So our heart reflects who we really are. If we keep our heart fit – clean, good and noble, then we keep our character in check, pleasing to God.
Clue3: The Parable of the sower Luke 8 : 4-15
Here Jesus portrays the Word of God as a seed and our heart as the soil where it is sown. As we all know, only if the soil is good, the seed can spring into life, sprout, grow and eventually produce fruit. If our heart is not fit – noble and good, then the word of God that we hear does not spring into life in our heart, but will be snatched by the devil. The devil will use his weapons like doubt, disbelief, hopelessness, fear, despair etc. to snatch the seed away. As we established before, if heart is not in good condition, even salvation is at stake because without believing in the heart, a person cannot be saved. If the heart is too consumed by the issues of life, riches and pleasures, then also the word will not have any option to grow or produce fruit. Only a noble and good heart will yield fruit.
For word of God to bear fruit in our lives we should have a heart that is fit – a good soil to nurture the seed and help it grow.
How to keep our heart fit?
Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.
Proverbs 4:23
Physically, to have a fit and healthy heart, we have to eat the right food, do regular exercise and do health check-ups occasionally. Spiritually too, we have to do the same.
Right Food: To have a heart that is fit spiritually, we should feed it with the right food. Always be diligent and be on guard as to what goes inside your heart. The junk food for heart is pride, selfishness, arrogance, jealousy, hatred, unbelief, unforgiveness, fear and the like. These are all weapons of the devil that he uses to attack our minds. Reject it and do not let it enter your hearts. If we fill our hearts with these negative and unwanted thoughts, we end up having a spiritually unhealthy heart that leads to an unfruitful life. God will not be able to use us for his kingdom in this case. Feed your heart with only good and noble contents – love, peace, humility, joy, compassion, faith etc. Reject all negative content that tries to sneak in.
Regular Exercise: Fill your heart with God’s word and His commandments. Read the word of God regularly and Write them on the tablets of your heart. When we fill our hearts with God’s living word and keep practicing it, then our heart will become spiritually fit as in how exercise contributes to the physical fitness of heart.
Occasional check-up: Our actions and our words reveals our heart, so we can validate the heart based on our words and actions. Occasionally scan your actions, your speech and your thoughts to see if anything unwanted has crept inside your heart.
Treasures uncovered
Spiritual heart fitness is very important because
- Our eternal life depends on it.
- For God, our heart and it’s contents matters.
- Our heart determines our character
- Word of God cannot produce any fruit if heart is not fit.
To have a fit heart spiritually
- Feed Heart with good food – noble thoughts, love, peace, joy, compassion, humility, etc. Reject all the junk – pride, selfishness, arrogance, jealousy, hatred, unbelief, unforgiveness, etc.
- Exercise regularly by reading the word of God and writing them on the tablets of your heart.
- Do occasional check-up by reviewing our actions, speech and thoughts.
An unhealthy heart (heart that is filled with pride, jealousy, arrogance hatred etc.) REPELS God. It is completely under our scope to decide what to feed our heart. Our actions, our life and our eternity depends on what we fill our heart with. Fill your heart with the living word of God so as to be fit spiritually to bear fruit for the kingdom of God and to be useful for God.
Prayer:
Father, thank you for teaching us that our heart and it’s contents matters a lot to you. As the psalmist says “Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me”. Help us to always be diligent about what we allow into our hearts. Help us to have a heart that is spiritually fit. Help us to fill our hearts with your living word and be useful for your kingdom. In Jesus name Amen.
Bible lessons 4 young Christians 