HEALTHY HEART HEALTHY LIFE
Proverbs 14:30 NKJV
30 A sound heart is life to the body,
But envy is rottenness to the bones.
One of my favorite passages in the book of Proverbs is chapter 4:20-27. Verse 23 says to "keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life." Our verse for today offers similar advice.
"A sound heart is life to the body." A key to understanding this verse is the usage of the word heart. You could make a case for a healthy heart, physically speaking, being health to the body. But a healthy physical blood pump does not mean the whole body is healthy. It's certainly a step in the right direction, but this is not the heart the scriptures are speaking of. The heart in this verse is speaking of the inner life, the core of our being. You have to be somewhat cautious of declaring that the heart is always speaking of the spirit of man. Man is a spirit, has a soul which would include the mind and emotions, and lives in a physical body. The spirit of man and the soul of man are so closely connected that, for purposes of understanding, we'll call the heart of man the inner life.
When our inner life is sound, it has a positive impact on our body. The word sound here indicated health and healing. One translation says a healed heart is life to the body. A healed heart would imply that there is nothing ill or off in the inner life. We see the contrast with a healthy heart by the second part of our verse. But envy is rottenness to the bones. Other translations use jealousy instead of envy. One translation says jealousy is like cancer in the bones. So the heart condition is a function of what is going on inside. Jealousy and envy will eat you up, literally.
Going back to Proverbs 4:23, where we are instructed to keep our heart, now we have even more insight as to what this means. We simply cannot afford to live with envy, jealousy, hatred, anger, and bitterness. We all have opportunities to allow these toxic emotions in. The key is not hanging onto them. To guard our heart, we must eliminate these feelings and emotions by refusing to dwell on them. Refusing to think and speak about them. Maybe if we viewed them as harmful to our health, we would deal with them in a more serious manner.
Paul, writing to the Ephesians, had this to say about getting rid of things that cause harm. In Ephesians 4:26, 29-32, "Be angry, and do not sin: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you."
Paul is saying not to hold on to anger for more than a night. To not allow corrupt or rotten words to come out of our mouths, knowing that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. To get rid of heart-hurting bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking. And to make sure our hearts, our inner lives, are healthy, be kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving. These are more than just ways to be a nice Christian; this is a way to a healthy heart and a healthy life.
PRAYER
Lord, show me if I have anything that I am hanging onto that is hurting my heart and subtracting from a healthy life in You.