And ye shall seek me, and rind me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. Jer. 29:13.

A few years ago Life magazine ran a series of articles with some remarkable photographs of the human heart. It also pictured the main arteries that carry blood to and fro throughout the body. Then the article went on to show why heart disease is the number one killer. The arteries become blocked with cholesterol. The flow of blood slows down until it stops. Then the heart stops and dies.

The Bible has a lot to say about the heart of man in relation to God. However, God is not speaking of the physical organ. The Bible reads, "Keep thy heart with all diligence" (Prov. 4:23). "From within, out of the heart of man, proceed evil thoughts" (Mark 7:21). Our relationship to God is spoken of in particular in relation to our heart, not because the Christian experience is located in the emotions or in some part of the body but because genuine Christian experience must come from the very center of our lives and is not something put on externally. When the heart obeys, the whole person obeys. When the heart is in a wrong relationship to God, the whole person is wrong. When God writes the law in the heart, He writes it in the whole person from the inside out. Unless the inner part is captured for Christ, there is no way that we can be Christians at all.

So the Bible urges us to serve and love the lord with a perfect heart. Certain men of the Bible are stated to have "served the Lord with a perfect heart." Of others it is said, "Their heart was not perfect with God." The Bible is speaking of man's whole life and character: the thoughts, the desires, the imaginations, the will. The reference is to the whole inner life as contrasted with the outward expressions. A person can put on a front in religion as in anything else.

How to restore a heart life, that is the question. The question is charged with moral and spiritual urgency. It is a matter of life or death. Age will not wait for improvement. Time will not wait for spiritual health in the heart. Spiritually, the only way is to make sure that our heart, our inner being, belongs to God.