Loving from a Whole Heart
When I was young, I spent a lot of time spreading human love around. There were early loves and heartbreaks in junior high, fascinations with fun cars, the thrill of competitive sports, amazing outdoor experiences, and many others. My heart was given away, without even knowing it had happened. This made building solid, loving relationships more difficult than they needed to be. As it turned out, all of these small loves were in fact idols. And idols steal your heart. Jesus speaks about this with respect to money in Matthew 6:21 & 24, which read:
“For where you treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:21
“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” Matthew 6:24
Do you see how the human heart follows idols? And how when we switch from idol to idol, the heart ends up spreading out into very small pieces?
No wonder I felt like I didn’t have much of a heart to give. It had already been given to so many inconsequential things over the years, distractions that consumed it. This was a huge discovery for me, and it only happened when I sought healing through the Freedom Path many of us have taken. Psalm 86:11-12 was a pivotal passage to me:
“Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name.
“I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with a whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever.”
Let’s work through this. David starts by seeking God and praying to be guided in the way of truth. Specifically, he realizes that his heart was fractured into pieces, as mine was. He doesn’t want a fractured heart any more, so he seeks God for healing. When we get to verse 12, we find that David’s heart is now united. With this whole heart, he gives thanks and glorifies God.
David does not explicitly tell us how this healing happened, other than walking in God’s way and God’s truth. But in my experience, and using the concepts of Matthew 6, healing comes from giving up the things which have a worldly hold on our heart. We do this explicitly in the The Steps to Freedom in Christ.
Each Step covers an area where our being is in bondage. From occult attachments to giving up hurts to abandoning pride, rebellion, lust, sexual attachments, and generational patterns, we cut ties in all these areas. As we do, a portion of our heart and soulreturn. Then, our heart is free to be stitched back together. It is a process for sure and it can feel pretty strange at first, especially when our heart has been fractured and distracted for years. But it is a healthy process. We will feel heart health when we can start to love more fully again, as David experienced. Cutting these harmful ties allows the human heart to become whole. And when it is whole, we can use it as David does to thank and glorify God.
Yet there is another level still. God’s Spirit in us also expresses love. As we clean out and cut undesirable attachments and idols, the fruit of the Spirit can be more fully expressed in us and through us. We end up loving from both God, as our source, and alsofrom our now whole, human heart. Others will notice these differences; they can’t be hidden. Human, emotional love often follows the love of God—which means that we can love others with a vastly expanded love.
Now, we have a love that is integrated in us and extends to others, both divine love and human, “brotherly” love.