Heart Health and Purity
Our heart is responsible for keeping every one of our organs in shape. This means that complications with the heart can be felt all over the body. An unhealthy heart may manifest in our respiratory system, our extremities, and our digestive system. People of all ages and lifestyles can make small changes in our lives to reduce our risk of heart disease. The American Heart Association recommends the following changes to better our heart health: stop tobacco consumption, increase physical activity, eat a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, reduce alcohol consumption, and minimize stress.
Likewise, a healthy "heart" is key to our overall spiritual health. The health of our spiritual heart for God impacts literally every other aspect of our spiritual lives.
We must nourish it: "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you" (Psalm 119:11, NIV).
We must keep it clean: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me" (Psalm 51:10, NIV).
We must protect it: "Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life" (Proverbs 4:23, ESV).
Why?
Because, "The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith" (1 Timothy 1:15, ESV).
Filling Cupcakes and the Spirit
Cupcake aficionado, Jamie, of My Baking Addiction has this to say about the two best ways to fill cupcakes:
One way is to use an apple corer. You take the apple corer and gently push it into the center of the cupcake about halfway down, rotating the corer to cut a full circle. Then, pull the corer out of the cupcake. Push the small cake round out of the corer. Once all of the cupcakes have been hollowed, pipe or spoon in your favorite filling, use a small knife to cut the top from each of the cupcake centers, place on the tip of the filling, and top with your favorite frosting.
The other way is by inserting a paring knife at a 45-degree angle just off-center of the top of the cupcake, insert it about halfway down into the cupcake. Keeping the knife at an angle, cut a circle around the center of the cupcake. Lift out the cake cone that you have just cut. As with the other method, once all of the cupcakes have been hollowed, pipe in your favorite filling and top with our favorite frosting.
Each of us have our own stories and unique experiences of how we came to faith, some "this" way and some "that." But the end result is the same. Upon salvation we are given the gift of the Holy Spirit and are called to be "filled" with His abiding presnece and influence.
It is in yielding ourselves to the sweetness of the Holy Spirit within that we find our purpose and power.
"And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" (Romans 5:5, ESV).
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law" (Galatians 5:22-23, ESV).
"To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good" (1 Corinthians 12:7, ESV).
Seven Foot Tall and Bulletproof
History is replete with examples of bad people with bad intentions doing bad things to people. But have you ever noticed how often those bad intentions are turned on their proverbial heads, resulting in remarkable good? A quick AI search brings countless cases in point:
John Bunyan’s Imprisonment – Arrested for preaching without a license in 17th-century England, Bunyan spent 12 years in jail. During that time, he wrote The Pilgrim’s Progress, one of the most influential Christian books ever published.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer – A German pastor and theologian, Bonhoeffer was imprisoned and eventually executed for his resistance to the Nazi regime. Yet his writings from prison, especially Letters and Papers from Prison, have inspired generations with their depth and courage.
The Apostle Paul – Much of the New Testament was written while Paul was imprisoned. His letters to early churches—written under duress—have shaped Christian theology and practice for centuries.
Richard Wurmbrand – A Romanian pastor imprisoned for 14 years under a communist regime for his faith. While suffering in solitary confinement and torture, he composed sermons in his mind to stay sane. After his release, he founded The Voice of the Martyrs, a ministry that now supports persecuted Christians worldwide.
Harriet Tubman – Born into slavery, Tubman endured unimaginable hardship. But after escaping, she returned again and again to rescue others via the Underground Railroad. The evil of slavery became the backdrop for her extraordinary courage and legacy of liberation.
In each of these examples, we see men and women stripped of their power, laid wholly vulnerable to the forces bearing against them for their harm.
These stories remind us that while evil may intend to destroy, it often becomes the very soil where resilience, purpose, and grace take root.
So what do these stories all have in common? In each of these cases, we see men and women of God submitting themselves to His higher purposes.
Submitting ourselves to God is important for many reasons, but chief among them is the key role it plays in allowing us to experience God's goodness.
In one classic OT example, we read the story of how Joseph's brothers became jealous of him and sold him into slavery. They perpetrated this crime against Joseph with nothing but bad intentions.
The remarkable part of the story was how Joseph chose to respond to his circumstances. Rather than becoming angry or bitter or playing the victim, Joseph submitted himself to a God Who had nothing but his best interests in mind. Because he submitted himself to God in the midst of his trial, it really didn't matter what his brothers’ intentions were.
By committing Himself to God, Joseph allowed God's good intentions to override the bad intentions of his brothers.
It is important to note that it was only because Joseph responded the way he did that he was able to overcome his circumstances and experience God's good intentions. The same is true for all of us.
As we live out our lives, we will be met by forces that do not have our best interests in mind. And just as Joseph was outnumbered and overpowered by his brothers, so it will be for us. At these times, we will seem to have no choice but to be subject to the forces that have marshaled themselves against us.
But we will have a choice!
Like Joseph, we will still have the option of committing ourselves to God, the choice to endure our circumstances with an attitude of humble submission.
The bottom line is God takes care of whatever we entrust to Him. So long as we yield ourselves to Him, it really doesn't matter what bad intentions come our way. We don't have to outsmart or outmaneuver every bad guy in our world. All we have to do is dedicate ourselves to God, without reservation.
When we have given all that we have and all that we are to God, the bad intentions of others can't possibly prevail against us. We are seven feet tall and bullet proof!
As Joseph explained to his brothers, "You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people" (Genesis 50:20, NLT).
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28).