That’s a question that might be fired in anger at a person who acts unkindly, coldly or unfeelingly towards someone in a time of distress or weakness.
We might consider we see that in some political leaders in the world. Now, we know it’s not the beating physical heart within us that is meant, but just as that is the centre of our body’s functioning, and when damaged can affect the life of the body, so the spiritual heart is considered the seat of life or strength. Hence, it means mind, soul, spirit, or one’s entire emotional nature and understanding. And that is surely what is meant in that question.
Then again, a comment about someone might be ‘He/she has no heart for . . . ’ – what they should be putting their heart into! I saw this comment recently: If your heart isn’t in it, you do not feel interested or enthusiastic about something: ‘I tried to look interested, but my heart wasn’t in it’.
As a Christian, I hope I have a heart (in answer to that first question), and I do want to put my heart (as against that last comment) into being a Christian – and in particular into following and knowing the heart of Jesus. Do you feel like that?
There’s a verse of a hymn by the late Oswald J. Smith that often comes to my mind:
Into the heart of Jesus
Deeper and deeper I go,
Seeking to know the reason
Why He should love me so -
Why He should stoop to lift me
Up from the miry clay,
Saving my soul, making me whole,
Though I had wandered away.
Will I ever really know the reason as to why he
should love me so?
I think probably not. But it’s worth knowing the heart of Jesus as our great desire, don’t you think?
I usually read books to Sandra, but there’s a book that she is reading to me at the moment—it’s titled ’Gentle and Lowly’ – The heart of Christ for Sinners & Sufferers, by Dane Ortlund. He refers to something that Charles Spurgeon pointed out:
In the four Gospel accounts given to us in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – eighty–nine chapters of biblical text – there’s only one place where Jesus tells us about his own heart. It’s in Matthew 11:29 ‘I am gentle and lowly (or humble) in heart.’ Ortlund continues: ‘We learn much in the four Gospels about Christ’s teaching. We read of his birth, his ministry, and his disciples. We are told of his travel and prayer habits. We find lengthy speeches and repeated objections by his hearers,
prompting further teaching. We learn of the way he understood himself to fulfil the whole Old Testament. And we learn in all four accounts of his unjust arrest and shameful death and astonishing resurrection. ‘But in only one place – perhaps the most wonderful words ever uttered by human lips – do we hear Jesus himself open up to us his very heart’.
‘Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you,
and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in
heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For
my yoke is easy, and my burden is light’.Mt 11:28-30
What a heart the Lord Jesus has – and wants to impart to us. May that ever be my desire. Yours too? You may like to read that book by Dane Ortlund also. But I’m reminded of a chorus I can remember singing in Sunday School here when I was a boy It’s a prayer and goes like this:
Jesus, my Saviour, in my behaviour
Help me to be like Thee:
Harmless and holy, Loving and lowly,
Patient and pure like Thee. (E.H.G.Sargent)
Shall we make that our prayer?
Steve
Elder
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