Renovation of the Heart
The Heart in the System of Human Life (1|4)
Pages 21-25
• The Contemporary Battle over Human Nature
• The Heart Directs the Life
• The Six Basic Aspects of a Human Life
TOGETHER read the devotional and the scripture.
INDIVIDUALLY take notes in your journal on what stands out.
Deuteronomy 6:4-7 (NIV) Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
Mark 12:30 (NIV) “‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
Psalm 16 A miktam (believed to mean song of atonement) of David (NIV)
Keep me safe, my God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.” I say of the holy people who are in the land, “They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight.” Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more. I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods or take up their names on my lips. LORD, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. I will praise the LORD, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I keep my eyes always on the LORD. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay. You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
TOGETHER pray for one another.
INDIVIDUALLY answer the questions in your journal - process your devotional notes and pray.
“If you would form your heart in godliness or assist others in that process, you must understand what the heart is and what it does, and especially its place in the overall system of human life.”
What is the heart and what is its role in human life?
The Contemporary Battle over Human Nature
”I believe it will become clear that heart, spirit, and will (or their equivalents) are words that refer to one and the same thing, the same fundamental component of the person. But they do so under different aspects. WILL refers to that component’s power to initiate, to create, to bring about what did not exist before. SPIRIT refers to its fundamental nature as distinct and independent from physical reality. And HEART refers to its position in the human being, as the center or core to which every other component of the self owes proper functioning. But it is the same dimension of the human being that has all these features.”
How can Christian spiritual formation unite a divided heart?
The Heart Directs the Life
“The human heart, will, or spirit is the executive center of a human life. The heart is where decisions and choices are made for the whole person. That is its function. - This does not mean that the whole person actually does precisely what the chief executive officer (CEO) directs. That would be ideal, perhaps (and again, perhaps not); but as any CEO or person in a management position - or even head of the family - knows, the system rarely goes as it is directed, and never perfectly so.”
Your heart is the CEO of your life. Where is your “company” heading?
The Six Basic Aspects of a Human Life
“The ideal of spiritual life in the Christian understanding is one where all of the essential parts of the human self are effectively organized around God, as they are restored and sustained by Him. - Spiritual formation in Christ is the process leading to that ideal end, and its result is love of God with all the heart, soul, mind, and strength, and of the neighbor as oneself. The human self is then fully integrated under God.”
How would each of the six dimensions of a person be different if we were fully transformed by the love and presence of God?
“A major part of understanding spiritual formation in the Christian traditions is to follow closely the way the biblical writings repeatedly and emphatically focus on the various essential dimensions of the human being and their roles in life as a whole.”
What does this mean - what is your response to this statement?
EXTRA READING:
“We often say that we are nothing, that we are misery itself and the refuse of the world, but we would be very sorry if anyone took us at our word or told others that we are really such as we say.”
Francis de Sales (1567 - 1622)