To Encourage You

Luke 6:45 “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”

Do you know that the leading cause of death in the U.S.A. according to the Centers for Disease Control is heart disease?  It seems each and every one of us, if not affected personally by heart disease, knows several people who are. It’s such a common malady. Yet, frequently, a person has no idea that they have such a disease before serious complications, even death, come upon them.  They’ve never had any symptoms, so they’ve never had an exam to check the condition of their heart.  That’s why routine checkups make sense and are urged on us by health professionals. 

However, there’s another type of heart disease that is even more serious than all this and one that no medical doctor can either diagnose or cure.  You see, while physical heart disease can lead to physical death, spiritual heart disease can lead to eternal death.  Thankfully, however, there is a symptom checker for this kind of heart disease that is available to each and every one of us. We are told about it in the verse above, and it’s a very simple test.  All we have to do is examine the words that come from our mouth.  If our heart is “good” then good things will come from our mouth, and if it is not good, then evil things will come out. 

Paul’s letter to the Colossians helps us to distinguish the bad from the good in this context.  First, for the bad.  In Colossians 3 Paul names these things: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, covetousness, anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk, and lying.  Though perhaps not a comprehensive list, it’s a pretty good one, and if these are the routine things that are coming from our mouth, it points to one thing: a bad heart. 

But then Paul also gives us a list of good things that can come from our mouth:  words that demonstrate compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness, and love.  In addition, he lists things like thankfulness, the teaching of the Word of God, the singing of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, prayer, and graciousness.  It’s such a simple test of our heart’s condition, and so vital to our spiritual life.

May God help us to take the counsel He’s given us with these words: “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? — unless indeed you fail to meet the test!” (2 Corinthians 13:5).  Yet He wants us to know that if we fail this test, there’s a Great Physician that can heal us.  He’s the one who has given us  these wonderful healing words from the Old Testament: “For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite’” (Isaiah 57:15). And He’s given us these similar words from the New Testament: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised” (Luke 4:18).   

Jesus: He’s the Great Physician that heals the sick, including the most serious illness known to man, the terminal illness of a sin-sick heart.