A Cure for Heart Trouble (Billy Graham)
The Heart in the bible
The heart is a central theme throughout the Bible, symbolizing more than just a vital organ. It represents the center of our emotions, decisions, and moral life. The heart beats over 100,000 times every 24 hours, processing all the blood in our bodies every four minutes. This physical significance mirrors its spiritual importance.
Such a vital organ is a fitting metaphor for the spiritual heart, which is the core of our being. The Bible uses the heart to describe our emotional and decisive center. It is where we love, hate, and make choices. The heart is the seat of our moral life, where we discern right from wrong.
- Proverbs 4:23: “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”
- Matthew 15:18-19: “But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.”
- Psalm 14:1: “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.‘”
The Heart’s Condition
The Bible describes the heart as sinful and deceitful. This condition is a result of original sin, passed down from Adam and Eve. Our hearts can harbor evil thoughts, leading to evil actions.
The heart is also the seed of life, heart, soul and spirit are all connected which lives on after death.
God looks at the heart, not the outward appearances. He doesn’t care if you’re brown, black, white, or yellow. In God’s eyes the heart is the symbol of the entire person.
He sees our motives, desires, and intentions. Our hearts must be aligned with God’s will to please Him. (Proverbs 24:12)
“The best and most wonderful things in the world cannot be seen or touched but are just felt in the heart.”
- 1 Samuel 16:7: “But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.‘”
- Proverbs 21:2: “A person may think their own ways are right, but the Lord weighs the heart.”
- God takes our heart out and ponders it. He weighs it by the Ten commandments, weigh it by the Sermon on the Mount, weighs it by the life of Christ, teachings of Scripture.
The Heart’s Deceit
Our hearts are naturally deceitful, where our hearts are full of evil and madness. We can deceive ourselves into thinking we are good people, but God sees the truth. We must be honest with ourselves and God about our sinful hearts.
- Jeremiah 17:9: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”
- Proverbs 6:18: “A heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil.”
- Matthew 15:8-10: “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.
- We can go to church, read the Bible, and pray, but if our hearts are not aligned with God, it is all in vain.
- Mark 7:21-23: “For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality
- All these starts from the heart then it comes out as actions.
- Psalm 101:5: “Whoever slanders their neighbor in secret, I will put to silence; whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart, I will not tolerate.”
- Jeremiah 5:23: “But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts; they have turned aside and gone away.”
- Ezekiel 14:3: “Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces. Should I let them inquire of me at all?
- We can have idols in our hearts, things that we put before God. These can be money, power, or relationships. We must remove these idols and put God first in our hearts.
- Our heart are stony and stubborn, we must allow God to soften our hearts and transform them. (Like the Pharoah’s heart was hardened. Exodus 7:13-14)
Is our heart right with God?
If our hearts are not right with God, our sins are not forgiven, and we are not prepared for heaven. We must reflect on our relationship with God and seek His forgiveness.
Our hearts has to be right and has to be touched by the Holy Spirit. By this we can be forgiven of our sins and have our hearts transformed.
We are meant to fellowship with God, we are in his image and without him, it’s dark. Our sin darkens our understanding and will. Dulls the conscience and defiles the hearts.
Bible says when there’s no shedding of the blood, there’s no forgiveness of Sins. If Jesus did not die on the cross and shed his blood for you. There’s no way you can be forgiven for your sins. Hebrews 9:22
- Hebrews 3:12: “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.”
- Ephesians 4:18: “They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.”
How God can change our hearts
- God prepares the heart by the Holy Spirit. All the experiences you thought it was terrible, God was preparing your heart.
- God opens the heart to receive the Gospel. God opens the heart to receive the Gospel. Acts 16:14
- God enlightens the heart. The eyes of your understanding are enlightened. Ephesians 1:18.
- Without the opening and preparation by the Holy Spirit no one could receive Christ.
God prepares the heart through the Holy Spirit, often using difficult experiences for this preparation (Proverbs 16:1). He then opens the heart to receive His message (Acts 16:14) and enlightens it to understand and accept Christ. Salvation is entirely God’s work; He gives us His Son, sends the Holy Spirit to convict and prepare us, and transforms our hearts (Ezekiel 36:26).