by Pastor Bob Beverley
During 20 years of research throughout the 1960's & 70's John & Beatrice Lacey observed that the heart appeared to be sending meaningful messages to the brain that it not only understood but obeyed. Even more intriguing it looked as though these messages could affect a person's behaviour. ...
One of the early pioneers in neuro cardiology, Dr J Andrew Armour, introduced the concept of a functional 'heart brain' in 1991. His work revealed that the heart has a complex intrinsic nervous system that is sufficiently sophisticated to qualify as a 'little brain' in its own right. Its elaborate circuitry of neurons, neurotransmitters, proteins and support cells enables it to act independently of the cranial brain - to learn, remember, and even feel and sense....
Numerous experiments have demonstrated that the messages the heart sends the brain affect our perceptions, mental processes, feeling states and performance in profound ways, and research suggests that the heart communicates information relative to emotional state to the cardiac centre of the brain stem..
Coherent heart rhythm patterns tend to be experienced as heightened mental clarity, improved decision making and increased creativity and to facilitate the experience of positive feeling states.... http://www.heartmath.org/
The scriptures are full of references to the heart (and there are comparatively few about the mind). Why does the Bible keep talking about the heart, and is God more interested in our heart than our mind? Haven't we always felt that there is something more than intellect at work in our decision making processes ('if only I had listened to my heart!'). Can our heart reason, be wise, gain understanding or are these just expressions to describe emotion?
Consider these scriptures:
Proverbs 2:2 'incline your ear unto wisdom and apply your heart to understanding'
Proverbs 23:15 'if your heart be wise my heart shall rejoice'
Luke 5:22 'what do you reason in your hearts?'
Jeremiah 17:9,10 'the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it?
Proverbs 23:7 'for as he thinks in his heart, so is he'
Ezekial 11:19 'and I will give them one heart'
Let's make the reasonable assumption that God, who designed our heart, gave us directions to specifically follow, not in our mind, but in our heart.
Matthew 22:37 'you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind' (first and foremost 'with all your heart')
Psalm 4:4 'commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still'
Proverbs 4:21 'keep my sayings in the midst of your heart'
Proverbs 4:23 'keep your heart with all diligence - out of it are the issues of life'
This can actually happen by focusing on our heart when we pray, and every day as we go about our daily tasks, believing 'this is who I am - the Word of God in my heart is the core of my existence, not my education, my job or anything else I do.'
God's Word directs our attitudes too -
Hebrews: 3:8 'harden not your hearts'
Phillipians 4:6,7 'be anxious for nothing . the peace of God shall keep (phroureo: keep with a military guard) your hearts and minds.
If you study all the scriptures the Bible contains relating to the heart, you will see that they apply to every aspect of our life, and it gives us great joy to consider that by the infilling of the Holy Spirit God 'takes away our heart of stone' and that He 'writes his laws in our hearts'.
Pastor Bob Beverley (ref. Pr Peter Miller, Lismore)