Thankfully I have never had to have a heart cath but I know several people who have. Because of some abnormality that appeared on a test, a check of the heart is usually performed by running a light up through the main artery so doctors can check the condition and see if there is any damage to the heart. I have heard it is not very pleasant and after the test, a patient has to lie flat on his back while waiting for the blood to clot in the area where the "scope" entered the body.
This test reveals the physical part of our heart and how it looks but think about this: what does the spiritual part of our heart look like and is there a test out there that can determine the damage and if in fact there is damage, what measure do we take to have it repaired? I thought of this as I read this scripture this morning:
Then the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and Levites--everyone whose heart God had moved--prepared to go up and build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem...Ezra 1:5.
I've honed in to one phrase in this scripture...everyone whose heart God has moved. When was the last time you felt like your heart was moved? What does it take for God to move our heart? Inside, our heart may be pumping...but is it MOVING? I've found the more I seek God and the closer I get to Him, the more He moves my heart.
But I haven't always been that way. Life happened and my heart became calloused. I was angry and hurt and bitter and it took a miraculous work from God to get my heart moving but you know what, He did it.
The first step we have to make in getting our heart moving again recognizing the condition of our heart. Maybe we've been hurt or angry or bitter for so long that we think our calloused heart is "normal". It's easy for others to recognize our hardened heart but because we've become accustomed to it, we don't see it. Have we felt compassion toward anyone or anything lately or does our heart feel like a brood of vipers have taken over or worse yet, we feel absolutely nothing? What about the words we speak to and/or about others? Do we have ANYTHING nice to say because the Bible does say out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks?!
Once we recognize we have this hardened heart problem, we have to ask the Great Physician for some help. Cry out to Him to soften our heart; to break the chains around it and let us "feel" again; to mend the hurt and take away the bitterness and anger. We may have to lie flat on our back for a while, as if we've had an arteriogram, and let God work on our heart. As with any heart surgery, it takes time to heal a calloused and hardened heart but God is more than willing to "fix" our condition...He's just waiting on us to realize we need a little help.
Until next time......
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