Prepping for a Heart Transplant

 – by Daniel R. Vess

If anyone was to be known as the “King of Hearts” it would have to be King David. When Samuel was sent to the house of Jesse to anoint a new king over Israel to replace King Saul, he was surprised at God’s rejection of David’s older brothers. “The Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart’” (1 Sam. 16:7). God said of David: “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will” (Acts 13:22).

Unfortunately, David’s descendants upon the throne did not always have his heart. His grandson, Rehobaom, “he did evil, because he did not prepare his heart to seek the Lord” (2 Chronicles 12:14). Of another descendant the Bible says, “King Abijam walked in sin and his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God as was the heart of his father David.” (1 Kings 15:3). However, King Jehoshaphat was one of the exceptions. Of him God said, “Nevertheless good things are found in you, in that you have removed the wooden images from the land, and have prepared your heart to seek God.” (2 Chronicles 19:3). His success in his reforms were hampered because “the people had not prepared their hearts unto the God of their fathers” (2 Chronicles 20:33).

When it comes to serving God faithfully, Biodun Fatoyinbo said it well, “The heart of the matter is the matter of the heart.” It is with our hearts that we reason (Mark 2:6). Actions and words first begin in the heart. They cannot be changed without first changing the heart. When Satan wants to bring a man down, he aims for the heart.
The Bible speaks of good hearts and bad hearts. There are hardened hearts (Ex. 17:15); evil hearts (Gen. 6:5; Heb. 3:12); deceitful hearts (Jer. 17:9); corrupt hearts (Eph. 4:18); and even blind hearts (Eph. 4:18). In fact, all sin originates from the heart. Jesus said, “but those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies” (Matthew 15:18-19).

If someone has a bad heart it may require a heart transplant to save their life. The same is true of the spiritual heart. If it is bad, a heart transplant is necessary. In preparation for a new heart there are several things one must consider. First, provide a place for only God. Too many want to keep their own heart and have a new one as well. Others crowd their heart with many worldly desires and leave no room for God. If the heart is not exclusively for God, it is not a good heart. You have seen the bumper sticker which reads, “God is my co-pilot.” If that is the case – move over. Unless He is the pilot, you are going nowhere. Samuel told Israel, “If you return to the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths from among you, and prepare your hearts for the Lord, and serve Him only; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines” (1 Samuel 7:3). All sin must be removed for a heart transplant. And one must “…love the Lord thy God with all thy heart…” (Mt. 22:37).

Next, pray for God’s help in transplanting a new heart within you. Zophar told Job, he needed to pray with a prepare heart to be restored to God’s favor (Job 11:13). A new heart involves stretching out our hands to God in prayer (Ps 10:17; 1Ch 29:18).
For a new heart one must purpose in the heart to avoid sin and serve God. As a young man this is what Daniel did when faced with a moral dilemma. “But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself” (Daniel 1:8). It is with the heart that man purposes (2 Corinthians 9:7). The Psalmist sang, “My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise” (Ps. 57:7).

A good heart will prize the things of true spiritual value. If one appreciates those things in heaven his heart will be there as well (Matthew 6:19-21).

“Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the Law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel” (Ezra 7:10). A prepared heart is one that pursues the knowledge and wisdom of God. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5).

It does little good for one to just hear God’s Word, they must also perform God’s Will ( Js. 1:22-25). Paul wrote, “God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered.”

(Romans 6:17). To know the Truth, to obey God’s Will is still not enough. A good heart will present God’s Will to others. Ezra was a “skilled scribe in the law of Moses” (7:6). And “expert in the words of the commandments of the Lord, and of his statues to Israel” (7:11). Jesus shared the Truth in His parables. Some would never understand the mysteries of the kingdom. Why? It was a matter of unprepared hearts. “But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience” (Luke 8:15).

In time there arose a king who had a heart like David. It is said of Hezekiah that “ before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses; nor after him did any arise like him” (2 Kings 23:25). His heart was totally given to God. “And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart, and prospered” (2 Chron. 31:21). Hezekiah prayed once, “The good Lord pardon every one that prepareth his heart to seek God,…”

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