Who are you? I mean, really, who – are – you? Who are you when you’re not performing for someone else, putting on airs? Who are you when no one else is looking? What I’m talking about is your heart. Your heart is where you reason and imagine, it is your affections and emotions. You can have a foolish heart or be wise at heart. Your heart is where you make choices and will to act. Your heart is the center of who you are. Your heart is you and you are your heart. Your heart is what God sees and judges by. So what does He see when He looks at your heart? Who are you?
Jeremiah 17:9-10 tells us your heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick; who can understand it? You inherited this deceitful, sick heart from Adam and Eve, and it’s what you choose to do – we are sinners by nature and by choice. Thomas Boston said, “Corruption is ingrained in our hearts, interwoven with our very natures, sunk deep into our souls, and will never be cured but by a miracle of grace.” Jesus said it’s not what goes into a person that makes him unclean, it’s what comes out of his heart. We all have a deep and rich history of stubborn, idolatrous hearts, choosing “anything but God,” and in need of serious heart replacement. This is not a DIY project. Nobody performs their own heart surgery on their own sin-sick hearts.
The good news is that God is the great physician who performs the procedure. He gives a new heart. Jeremiah 31:33 says, “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Ezekiel 36:26-27 says, “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” The Lord God will circumcise your heart so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live (Deuteronomy 30:6). Has God given you a new heart?
A new heart lives in the Lord. A new heart hopes in the Lord. A new heart trusts in the Lord. “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit (Jeremiah 17:7-8).” Your heart is who you are and what God looks at. Examine your heart today, get right with God, and live accordingly.