A Heart-Healthy Diet
Dave Faust
I want to recommend a new diet. This diet doesn't require counting calories, skipping meals, or overdosing on grapefruit. It involves no lettuce or cottage cheese, and it has nothing to do with those low carb or high fiber fads you hear about every day.
It is a heart-healthy diet, though. In fact, the heart is the focus of this plan — but not the muscular organ in your chest. I'm talking about what the Bible calls your heart — the inner person, the seat of your thoughts, feelings, and desires. "Above all else," wrote the wise man Solomon, "guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life" (Proverbs 4:23).
He pointed out, "An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up" (Proverbs 12:25).
Many of us need to put our hearts on a diet. Jesus warned, "Be careful, or your heart will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life" (Luke 21:34).
Lighthearted Living
Matthew chapter 6 mentions several areas where we can cut the spiritual fat and reduce the stress on our hearts.
Our hearts will lose weight if we quit trying to impress other people. Jesus said not to give, pray, or fast with the primary goal of pleasing others. Instead, if you honor God sincerely and privately, "your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you" (v. 4).
Our hearts will be lighter if we refuse to hold grudges. As time passes, our hearts grow heavy from what someone has called "the burden of accumulated grievances." A family member hurt you, a church leader disappointed you, a coworker mistreated you, a friend turned against you. The best treatment for a grudge-heavy heart is the petition Jesus taught us to pray: "Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors" (v. 12).
Our hearts will be healthier if we quit relying on earthly treasures. It's good stewardship to save and invest, but it's foolish to devote our lives to the accumulation of personal wealth. In biblical times, moths destroyed fine clothes and thieves stole hidden treasures. In our day, fashion trends come and go, fine cars eventually rust in a junkyard, and a fickle stock market can ruin years of careful investment in a day's time. "You cannot serve both God and Money," Jesus observed (v. 24). So why not make the healthy choice and serve God, who promises that "the man who does the will of God lives forever" (1 John 2:17)?
Most of all, our hearts will feel lighter if we reduce the weight of worry. Charles F. Kettering said, "We should all be concerned about the future because we will have to spend the rest of our lives there." When we worry, though, we try to carry tomorrow's unlimited burdens with today's limited energy. As someone has said, worry is "the interest paid by those who borrow trouble." Jesus urged us to lighten up. "Do not worry about your life," he said with remarkable nonchalance. Then he became more specific. Don't worry about your body, your food and drink, your clothes, or all the other things "pagans run after." He concluded, "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own" (v. 34).
A healthy diet for the heart sounds like a good idea, doesn't it? Maybe someone should write a book about it.
Come to think of it, Someone already did.
This column first appeared in The Lookout on Aug 8, 2004.
A Good Old Age
The Bible says, "Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone" (Colossians 4:6). I thought of that verse recently when I came across a well-worn book published in 1891 by the English preacher, Charles H. Spurgeon. The book is called *The Salt-Cellars: Being a Collection of Proverbs, Together With Homely Notes Thereon*—a rather long title for a book full of short quotes!
A Heavyweight Responsibility
It’s a heavy commandment: “Honor your father and mother.” Literally, it’s heavy. The Hebrew word used in the Old Testament for “honoring” is *kabed*, and the root of the term means “to be heavy.” In a negative sense, it meant burdensome or difficult; in a positive sense, it meant weighty and glorious. Even today, in modern slang when someone hears a profound thought or a weighty insight he might exclaim, “That’s really heavy!”