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Sharron Hudson, Colonel
One of our favorite things to do as a family is to attend live stage musicals, and we have had the opportunity to attend some great ones. For those that I haven’t seen, I like to listen to the soundtracks. One “old” musical that I haven’t seen has a song called, “You gotta have heart.” It talks about “havin’ miles and miles of heart” “havin’ hope, not sittin’ around to mope,” or something like that…anyway.
During this time of thinking about hearts and flowers and love, we also know that God’s word has lots of things to say about heart. Here are just a few examples from the Psalms alone:
May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock, and my Redeemer (Psalm 19:14).
Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart (Psalm 37:4).
Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me (Psalm 51:10).
My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise (Psalm 51:17).
I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you (Psalm 119:11).
Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts (Psalm 139:23).
Of course, I could take up the entire New Frontier with scripture relating to the heart. Jesus, who turned the world upside down with his teachings, life and sacrifice, really challenges us by saying:
A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of (Luke 6:45).
But Jesus also directed us to the “Greatest Commandment”:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (Matthew 23:6).
When we do this, our hearts will be full of good and not of evil—and so what we say and do should reflect our total love for our God. Love him first—love him last—love him truly!
“Ya gotta have” a heart for him!
