Jesus said that “where your treasure is there your heart will be also” (Luke 12.34). That is a nugget. Think about it. What you treasure possesses your being.
My heart screams, “Wait a minute Lord, what do you mean? I love you! Really! I do!”
In my mind I am in love with Jesus Christ. He is my Savior. He is my Lord. He is the reason for my existence. He protects me and cares for me. I have given Him my heart and asked Him into it too. Those are pretty words aren’t they?
But let’s look at my heart relationship from a different angle. If Jesus were my husband/ wife (for the sake of illustration) what would my love life be like? Really. It is a legitimate question. How often would I speak to Him? What would I talk about? How would I show Him my affection? How would I treat Him?
My mind works against me. [Side note, the heart and mind are the same thing. Both represent my total being. My mind can fool me. Jeremiah in his classic literary work stated something important about my heart/ mind when he said, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”] So, if I cannot trust my heart, how can I know that I truly love Jesus Christ? What will guide me to a consuming love?
When I first saw my future wife it was a tingly feeling in the pit of my stomach that told me that I was in love. She was vibrant, gorgeous and I couldn’t stop thinking about her. It was love at first sight. How did I know? I felt it!
Did my mind lead me astray here? No. She was a jewel even before she became a Jewell. However, my motivation for love was based on a feeling. I could see no defects in her. She was a stunning goddess! She stole my heart.
In 1 Kings 11 something happened to Solomon’s heart that is a warning to us. He loved many foreign women. God had warned about the consequences of loving foreigners in Exodus. Yet Solomon chose to embrace them instead of eluding them. These women did exactly what God said that they would. They “turned his heart away” from God.
We see Solomon doing things that we can’t believe. He allowed his wives and concubines to build altars and temples to their gods. Ashtoreth, Milcom, Molech and Chemosh were horrible beliefs. They required devotion to the point of human sacrifice. Babies were given over to Milcolm’s consuming embrace.
Stunning! How could the wisest man who ever lived come to this? And what can we learn from his devastating diversion? Just this; be careful to guard your heart. Solomon said it best in Proverbs 6.25 when he reminded his son, “Do not desire (a prostitute’s) beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes.”
How could eyelashes capture a man? Easily, right men? Solomon’s heart was stolen over a thousand times and God allowed him to lived to regret his exacerbated love life.
The application for us is to focus on Christ’s love. Allow Him to captivate and conqueror me. Let Him alone dominate my thoughts and intentions. My flesh and the world’s allures will fight me tooth-and-nail but in Him I can resist and rest. As I meditate on His love for me and imitate it will I be truly fulfilled and satisfied.
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