You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. – Deuteronomy 6:5
Jimmy the Dog was important in British medical history in the 1890s. He became the first mammal to test new equipment developed by physiologist Augustus Desire Walter—the electrocardiogram, the EKG. Jimmy’s heart rate was monitored by the new machine as he was injected with doses of saline to measure changes in the rhythm of his heartbeats. Early versions of the EKG weighed 150 pounds or more and were powered by 6-volt automotive batteries.
Today, programmed by microchips, EKGs play a central role in understanding heart issues, and qualified medical personnel are required to interpret them.
When it comes to your spiritual life, God reads your heart’s EKG. Only God is qualified to determine your spiritual health.
“Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). A properly functioning heart is centered on God. Today’s verse, called the V’ahavta, continues the Shema, the essence of Judaism that God must be above all and loved at all times. Theologian Charles Spurgeon wrote, “It is not a little love that God deserves, nor is it a little love that He will accept. He blesses us with all of his heart and all his might and, after that fashion, we are to love him.”
As God looks at your spiritual EKG, will He see a heart fully committed to Him, a heart that desires complete obedience to Him, a heart full of love for Him? Will He see the rhythmic beating of a heart that is kind, patient, compassionate, merciful, and loving to others? Ask the Lord to help you, by His Spirit, to love Him and those around you so well that people are drawn to His salvation and heart transformation
Comments