Recently, I was talking with a guy who works for a company that transports body organs for transplants. He was describing to me how carefully they handled organs such as hearts, kidneys and livers. They must make sure that the organ is protected, healthy when it arrives, and is ready to be transplanted into another person’s body.
Jesus spoke of the heart. Our hearts must be protected and healthy. If our hearts are healthy, then we are healthy.
Jesus said, “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45). In these words, Jesus speaks to two things:
1. Whatever you store up will eventually show up. In other words, what’s inside of you will eventually come out…one way or the other. Jesus is saying that our heart is a warehouse that stores all kinds of things…knowledge, wisdom, values, perspectives, our response to God and people, etc. So, everyday we are making deposits into our heart, the warehouse. We can think of our heart like a bank account that we are making deposits to. We need to make sure that we are making good, pure, uplifting, truthful deposits into our hearts because we live out of our hearts.
2. The mouth speaks what the heart leaks. Jesus said that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. The truth is that we talk about what’s in our heart. We speak of that which we store up. We store up by making deposits into our hearts and minds. Let me mention a few ways that we make deposits:
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By what we think about. What controls your thoughts? That’s what you’re storing up.
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By the books we read
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By the movies and TV shows we watch
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By the music we listen to
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By the way we spend our time (hobbies)
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By the time we spend with God
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By the time we spend investing in others
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By the way we spend our money (steward God’s money)
What deposits are you making into your heart and mind?