The Cure for Heart Problems
We’ve talked about four symptoms of a heart problem: 1. You think God is punishing you. 2. You are asking God “Why me?“ 3. You feel unsatisfied. 4. You feel hopeless. (Click the symptom you want to hear more about.)
The symptoms are what tip you off to what is happening in the center of it all. The heart. The Bible says that, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” Just when this truth gets you feeling like the condition of your heart is final, God tells us the cure for this sick, deceitful thing. In Ezekiel it says, “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”
Do you want a new heart? Do you need healing from the symptoms that seem to plague you!
1. Pray for it.
David messed up – big time! And after he was confronted about his sin, he prayed these words, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” After the wrong spirits have been at work in you for a while – dirtying things up, there has to be some clean up work. If your heart has been jacked up and the result has been wrong thoughts and wrong actions. Pray for God to clean you up from the inside out.
2. Repent
Repentance is kind of old school. Some think of it as old fashioned. But a sick heart can’t get well in an infected environment. When your prayer for clean up is sincere it is joyful to God when you turn away from the old stuff and turn toward Him. When a sick heart chooses health, the actions are what solidify the decision.
3. Admit the Pain of Your Current Conditions
One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Psalm 34:18 The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. When you get sick of being sick, then you are ready to get well. Heartache, pain, suffering, disappointment – they all break us. Broken is a condition that the Lord can draw near to. It is usually when we are finally open to hear from Him, receive from Him and follow Him. In my brokenheartedness I became desperate and that is where I found Christ. I poured out the pain of that situation. I was able to see the sin sickness that got me to such a low point. I desperately wanted a turn around. I invited Him to come near to me and found that He was closer to me than He had ever been before.
4. Reach up With Thanks and Praise
Romans 6:17 says, “But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed.” Once you commit to the new way of living that springs from the new heart God has given – be thankful along the way. A heart full of thankfulness will be filled to praise. A heart full of praise will be excited to worship. A heart full of worship will desire God’s will and God’s way. God will meet you right where you are and in His presence He will keep making your heart clean.
Heart problems don’t have to be fatal. They don’t have to be final. There is hope and there is a way to wellness.
How can we pray for your heart today? Leave a comment.
