Monday, March 9, 2015

A Heart for God and Others

eDevotion
Encouragement for your daily walk with God

As the great Polish composer Frederic Chopin was gasping for air on his deathbed, he reportedly whispered, “Remove my heart after I die and entomb it in Poland.” After his death, his sister apparently sealed his heart in a jar of cognac and smuggled it to Warsaw beneath her skirts. It passed through the family until it was buried in a church. When the Nazis invaded Poland, they seized the heart, but it was returned after the war. Not long ago, Polish officials secretly exhumed the relic and inspected it for damage before reporting that Chopin’s heart was still “in good shape.” It now resides undisturbed in a pillar of Warsaw’s Baroque Holy Cross Church.

I found that a fascinating tidbit of history, but it also caused me to think about the “heart” of a Christ follower as well. Where is your heart located? Jesus made a remarkable statement concerning your heart. He said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” [Luke 12:34]. It’s a given that He wasn’t referring to the blood-pumping muscle in your chest, but rather you, the Christ follower—who you are.

Do you have a heart for Christ and all things godly? The apostle Paul said that the true heartbeat of Christ followers is to live for the one who died for us. In other words, we no longer live for ourselves, but we live for God and others. 

How about a heart check-up today? We need to keep our hearts in good shape, you know. We do that by keeping the foremost commandment to “…love the Lord your God with all your heart…” [Matthew 22:37].

And here’s a little cardio workout for you too. Pray this prayer by Charles Wesley: O for a heart to praise my God, a heart from sin set free, a heart that always feels Thy blood so freely shed for me.


And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. 2 Corinthians 5:15

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