A Healthy Heart
By Ken and Jan Merop
Avery County
All the leads were attached to me correctly. Yet the doctor couldn’t get a reading from the cardiogram machine.
I lay there praying against the trepidation of what he might find.
That was many years ago. But I can still hear the doctor saying, “I don’t see anything on the screen. I don’t know what’s wrong.”
Quietly, I said, “I’m still here.”
He quickly turned and said, “Oh, it’s not you! It’s the machine.”
We laughed a bit and he eventually was able to rule out anything with my heart.
Healthy physical hearts are essential to good health. Proper nutrition, good eating habits, and exercise are vital. Our spiritual hearts need to be nurtured as well. For example, in Proverbs 12: 25, NKJV it says, “Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, but a good word makes it glad.” Proverbs 17: 22 says, “A merry heart does good, like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones.”
Many verses remind us of God’s peace and our thankfulness. For example, Colossians 3:15 encourages us to let God’s peace rule in our hearts and to be thankful.
The above verses give us the prescription for a healthy heart. Joy, encouraging words, peace, and thankfulness provide the environment in which a heart thrives…not just survives. In 1 Thessalonians 5: 16 this prescription is affirmed with these words, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
Recently, my husband Ken gave me an acronym for the word heart. ‘H’ stands for healthy, which we just explored. Then he saw how ‘EAR’ follow ‘H.’ We must listen to God’s word so we will hear his voice and what he wants to say to us. Once we hear what he has to say we will discover a beautiful truth.
The letter ‘T’ stands for treasure.
A treasure is something of great value. That is how God sees us. In Isaiah 43: 7, the Lord God says, “Everyone who is called by My name, whom I have created for My glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him.”
We belong to the Lord and he loves us with an everlasting love. Jesus proved that by dying a substitutionary death for me and you so that when we receive his free gift of salvation, we are born anew into his family. We are his children…and children are a treasure.
Let’s live as treasured ones. Selah
Heart of the Matter
The bee’s work has just begun.
But in order to fulfill its design,
the bee must begin with the flower’s core.
We, too, must find our center.
A heart seeking God will find its quintessence.
“And you will seek Me and find Me,
When you search for Me with all your heart.”
Jeremiah 29:13
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Ken and Jan love residing in the mountains of Avery County. Visit Jan’s new blog @pauseandconsider.net, Journeying with Jan. Ken’s photos can be seen at kenmeropphotography.com.
You can read more good Christian news from Ken and Jan HERE.
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