Take Heart

I am sure you will agree that our hearts are an indispensable component of our bodies! If our hearts become damaged in some way (perhaps due to illness or a blockage), all that we could normally undertake would be seriously hampered. In the same way, the seat of our emotions (the heart of who we are) can easily become blocked and damaged due to our fears, anxieties, sadnesses and unfulfilled longings, which will hamper all that we could be, and accomplish, in Christ Jesus.

In Matthew chapter 9, Jesus addresses the issue of our hearts, first to a man limited in his ability to walk, and then to a woman who had spent all her money on doctors and medicines, but only grew more ill (Mark 5:25, 26):

Some men brought to him a paralytic, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.” (Matt. 9:2)

…… She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.” Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,”he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed from that moment. (Matt. 9:22)

Take heart! Our sins are forgiven, through faith. Take heart! Our illnesses (physical and emotional) are healed, through faith. But how exactly do we “take heart”? Paul gives us a great insight:

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16, 18).

We cannot lose heart if our hearts are fixed looking to Jesus in our circumstances for His grace, peace, presence, enabling, etc., because we will be living life from a totally different perspective.

Today, son or daughter of the Most High, we have a choice: to continue to fix our eyes on the sorrows and injustices of life (which are all temporary), or to fix our gaze heavenwards (which is unseen, but eternal). Will you choose that which heartens or disheartens our inner being?