“I’m sorry, but your son is now in congestive heart failure…”

“The reason you are short of breath is because you are filling up with fluid. Your heart is wearing out…”

“Your heart is very sick and could stop at any moment, so we need to be prepared…”

“Your daughter is receiving all the life support we can give her. There’s nothing more we can do to sustain her life unless a new heart becomes available in the short time she has left…” 

These are tough words that our family wishes we would have never had to hear. Unfortunately, I’m sure that many of you have heard similar statements from your cardiologist regarding the condition of your heart or the heart of someone you love.

As hard as this may be, there is a “heart condition” that is a much worse diagnosis than being in congestive heart failure. I am referring to the “sick” condition of our spiritual hearts. God has given us His diagnosis of our hearts in Jer. 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” When we look at all the wickedness and evil in the world, we can see the evidence of deceitful hearts. However, we have the tendency to point our fingers at other people and without seeing our own heart’s condition. I believe when God sees our hearts, He sees hearts that are sick with pride, adultery, murmurings and many other heart “diseases.” God’s purpose is to cleanse and heal our hearts so we can find true freedom in Him.

Our family has spent countless hours at various hospitals for heart biopsies, catherizations, EKG’s and Echocardiograms, just to check the health conditions of our children’s hearts.  Recently, our daughter, Alisha, received a wonderful report about the overall condition of her transplanted heart. It was wonderful to get this report! Although this is important, we realize that the condition of her spiritual heart is truly what is essential. (Our story is in our book, “Big Mountain, Bigger God.”)

Let me ask you…if God would do a heart catheterization of your heart, would He see any indications of a prideful disease? Would His EKG’s and Echocardiograms detect a murmuring heart or a heart that has competing affections? Would God give you the diagnosis that your heart is failing because of the “sickness” that you have allowed the enemy to fill you with? Could your heart be considered healthy, or do you have symptoms of having a fearful, adulterous, bitter, or discouraged heart? Are YOU in need of a surgical procedure to correct the damage of your heart? Does the Great Physician find you in need of a complete “heart transplant”?

Recently, I was sharing with a woman at a prison regarding the dangers of a murmuring heart. In exasperation, she declared, “I just don’t think that I can say anything anymore because almost EVERYTHING that comes out of my mouth is negative!” I asked her if she thought this would change the condition of her murmuring heart. She realized that it would not because the problem was the condition of her heart. In Matthew 12:34, Jesus said, “O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.”

In my future blogs, I would like to explore deeper into some of these specific conditions of our heart. We have been negatively influenced by the “follow your heart” mentality. We are told that you should do whatever your heart tells you to do. I’m sure a suicide bomber also follows the promptings of his heart. His heart is filled with anger and hatred, and he kills hundreds of innocent people. Should he be following what his heart is telling him? I have seen that it’s also not safe for my children to follow their hearts. Their hearts may lead them into physical dangers in the same way that our hearts lead us into spiritual dangers.

In their book, “The Love Dare”, the Kendrick brothers say, “…In an effort to follow their hearts, people have abandoned their jobs to reignite a lousy garage band, lost their life savings following a whim on a race horse, or left their lifelong mate in order to chase an attractive coworker who’s been married twice already. What feels right in the height of sweet emotion often feels like a sour mistake a few years later…”

I am determined to begin looking deeper into the appalling conditions of my heart. My heart is NOT, by nature, GOOD in any way. It is “desperately wicked” and it is time that I recognize and deal with it accordingly. Because this doesn’t promote any “warm and fuzzy” feelings towards myself, I know that my worth and identity needs to be found completely in the Lord, Jesus Christ.

I invite you to join me in this journey to our “hearts.” However, I will warn you that this is not going to be a “feel good about yourself” journey, but I trust that the final results bring a cure to the diseases of your heart. Will you surrender your heart to the scrutiny of the Great Physician? His cardiology experience is unprecedented.

~Cindy (For The Mullett Family)