“Because many of us have seen our heart as an adversary that can sabotage our best efforts to become the person we want to be, if we’re honest, we’re petrified of spelunking down with Jesus and finding out what’s really going on down there.”- Christa Black Gifford
As Christa Black Gifford continues Chapter 2 of Heart Made Whole, she asserts we must try to find out what’s inside of our hearts. Because this is the only way to fully understand ourselves and find wholeness. Also, we need to know why God’s given us hearts in the first place.
Most noteworthy, though, sometimes we must approach our pain monsters, Christa notes, with great care, skill, and intentionality. For the brokenness, damage, and lies deposited by old pain monsters need untwisting and eviction. Then, healing occurs through relationship with the perfect love of Christ.
Yet, Ms. Gifford stresses, most of us fear spelunking down with Jesus into the depths of our heart. Since we view our heart as an adversary, we’re reticent to unveil the contents of our secret vault we’ve guarded through lockdown.
Rather, you must strive to understand the design of your God-given heart. And, the author points out, Scripture uses the Hebrew and Greek words for heart more than one thousand times. Thus, the Hebrew word for heart, lebab, denotes the center of all physical and spiritual life. Hence, it’s the core where your feeling, intellect, and will reside. Similarly, the New Testament Greek word,, kardia, refers to thoughts or feelings (mind). So, it’s also defined as the middle.
However, Christa asserts, our modern culture often reduces the heart to a feeling factory. In contrast, every one of your thoughts and emotions grow out of your core beliefs. And it’s this center inside of your heart that makes you special and unique.
Today’s question: What keeps you from spelunking down with Jesus? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “The created heart – never your enemy”
