Spiritual heart attacks • Deshen Daily

A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: But by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken (Proverbs 15:13, KJV)

Glory & Grace Daily devotional for May 1st discussed the mystery of spiritual heart failure, looking at how fear causes the heart to fail and produce symptoms. I will continue using medical analogy today to convey another essential spiritual truth about the heart, which I have called “spiritual heart attack”.

A heart attack of the physical heart occurs when a blood clot forms, and part of the muscle of the heart dies.It comes on suddenly, as though the heart has come under an attack. The scripture uses the word “heart” to refer to all that is within us, that is the spirit and the soul. For practical purposes, it simply means your inner life, which includes your thoughts, emotions, and your will. Just as the body can be attacked by a disease such as an infection and cause destruction, our hearts can also be attacked in the same way leading to destruction.

In Proverbs 15:13 above, it says through sorrow, the spirit of someone is broken. Let me dramatize it to help you to understand it easily. Imagine you have a clay cup on your table, and you use an iron rod to smash it, breaking it to peace. Now imagine sorrow is the iron rod, and the clay is the heart. Sorrow breaks the heart to pieces like the iron rod breaks the clay!

This sorrow is what 2 Cor. 7:10 calls “sorrow of the world”. It means the heartaches, sorrows or sadness that results from the troubles we have in the world. Think of betrayal, rejection, loss of a loved one, financial loss, losing your job, business failure, relationship break up or divorce, family problems, etc. The sorrow from these things have the ability to attack our hearts and break it into pieces. When the heart is broken, it becomes hopeless, depressed, weak, etc. As Prov. 4:23 says, the state of a person’s heart determines their life. When the heart is this broken, guess what happens to our relationships, jobs, finances, marriages, spiritual life, etc? Well, they become broken as the heart inside is broken. This is the principal reason the Lord says “protect or guard your heart” Prov. 4:23. Well, protect it from what? The sorrow of the world, and similar attacks such as fear which was discussed yesterday.

MEDITATE

I want you to explain to yourself what Prov. 15:13 above means: “But by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken”

APPLY THE WORD

How is your heart? Make no mistake about spiritual things: we cannot have a broken heart and a whole life. There is no such pretense with spiritual things. If we harbor pain, sorrow, bitterness, etc in the heart, it will show up in one way or the other. If your heart is broken, fix it right away. If you need to repent of something, do not sleep another night. If you need to ask someone for forgiveness, do it right away. If you need to let go of that pain or bitterness, why spend another day in that dark place?Maybe you just need to believe the Lord loves you and will see you through that tough time. Protect your heart from heart attacks! Protect the joy of the Lord in your heart from the sorrow of the world.