Leading With Heart

In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.
But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.” Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir.
I’ve said it, and you probably have too.  “They have heart,” or “they just had more heart.”  We aren’t talking about the blood pumping engine within their chests.  Neither was Jesus when He recited the Shema Yisrael to the Pharisees.  The word used in Deuteronomy 6:5 that Jesus was quoting is lebab.  Lebab is the inner part, or the seat of courage.  The Shema and the greatest commandment start off the list with lebab.  This is logical because if there is no courage then nothing else matters.
In Jeremiah’s letter to the exiles in Babylon, God tells the Israelites in captivity that they will find Him when they look for Him with all their lebab.  Before the exile to Babylon, Israel had no lebab.  They were without God.  They had lost all courage to follow the LORD.  The LORD had them exiled to Babylon for 70 years (as they are told in Jeremiah’s letter).  The destruction of Israel and their exile into Babylon was promised to them in Leviticus 26 hundreds of years before.  They had not lead with their hearts and thus found ruin.
We often describe salvation to a young child as “asking Jesus into your heart.”  Oh how accidentally acurate we are.  In Galatians 4, Paul writes “God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts.”  The first action following adoption that God does is to send the Spirit into our hearts.  The Holy Spirit is our seat of courage.  No longer is it my ability, commitment, or personal courage.  The Holy Spirit is my seat of courage.  

Since the Holy Spirit is my seat of courage I can lead with my heart.  I can also choose not to have the Holy Spirit as my seat of courage.  If I choose that then I find myself like Israel before the exile.  Jeremiah tells us in Jeremiah 17:9 that my heart is wicked.  If I don’t lead with my heart, I will be found in ruin.  I will not be in God’s will for me.  His good pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:2)  If I lead with the Holy Spirit as my seat of courage, I will be in the middle of God’s will for me no matter what comes.

--Zine Smith

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