“HEART HEALTHY”

SEPTEMBER 29, 2024

READ: Proverbs 4 (Focus vs. 20-27)

MEMORY VERSE
“Guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” Proverbs 4:23

BACKGROUND
The human heart is an amazing organ. This fist-sized pumping station weighs between 7 and 15 ounces. Daily it beats around 100,000 times and pumps 2,000 gallons of blood through the 60,000 miles of blood vessels in our bodies!

With such a strategic assignment and heavy workload, it’s understandable why heart health is central to the well-being of the entire body. Medical science encourages us to pursue healthy habits because the condition of our heart and the quality of our health go together.

While medical science speaks authoritatively about our physical hearts, God speaks with even greater authority about a “heart” of another kind. He addresses the mental, emotional, spiritual, and moral “center” of our being.

Because the heart is the central processing unit of life, it must be protected: “Guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (Proverbs 4:23).

Safeguarding our hearts will help us with our speech (v. 24), compel us to be discerning with our eyes (v. 25), and choose the best paths for our feet (v. 27). Regardless of age or stage of life, when our hearts are guarded, our lives are preserved, our relationships are protected, and God is honored.
By: Arthur Jackson

INSIGHT
Proverbs 4 paints a picture of a life guided and nourished by “the way of wisdom” (v. 11). To be a disciple of wisdom means to let “one’s whole body” (v. 22) be transformed by it—our ears (v. 20), eyes (vv. 21, 25), feet (vv. 26-27), and, most importantly, our heart (v. 23).

We’re to cling with unswerving devotion to the way of wisdom, to “guard it well, for it is [our] life” (v. 13).

Along with the prophet Ezekiel’s vision of a river of life (Ezekiel 47:1-12), Jesus may have had in mind the imagery of Proverbs 4:23, of all life flowing from our hearts, when He said: “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them” (John 7:38).

Christ is God’s wisdom made human (1 Corinthians 1:24, 30).
By: Monica La Rose

APPLICATION
What do your lifestyle and habits reveal about the condition of your heart? If you haven’t prayed to God for a change of heart, what’s keeping you from doing that today?

PR’s RE-EMPHASIS (From Post)
“…it’s understandable why heart health is central to the well-being of the entire body…While medical science speaks authoritatively about our physical hearts, God speaks with even greater authority about a “heart” of another kind.”

PR’s (PASTOR RICHARD) TAKE
“True navigation begins in the human heart. It’s the most important map of all.”
Elizabeth K. Lindsey

O Holy Spirit, descend plentifully into my heart. Enlighten the dark corners of this neglected dwelling and scatter there Thy cheerful beams.” Saint Augustine

PRAYER
“Search me, dear God, and know my heart; create in me a clean heart. Let me hide Your truth in my heart that I might not sin against You.”

TODAY’S HYMN/WORSHIP/PRAISE/GOSPEL SONG
“TAKE MY LIFE AND LET IT BE”

Take my life and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
Take my moments and my days;
Let them flow in endless praise,
Let them flow in endless praise.

Take my hands and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet and let them be
Swift and beautiful for Thee,
Swift and beautiful for Thee.

Take my voice and let me sing
Always, only, for my King.
Take my lips and let them be
Filled with messages from Thee,
Filled with messages from Thee.

Take my silver and my gold;
Not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect and use
Every power as Thou shalt choose,
Every power as Thou shalt choose.

Take my will and make it Thine;
It shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart it is Thine own;
It shall be Thy royal throne,
It shall be Thy royal throne.

Take my love; my Lord, I pour
At Thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself, and I will be
Ever, only, all for Thee,
Ever, only, all for Thee.

READING THROUGH THE BIBLE THIS YEAR (DAILY)
ROMANS 12