The Importance of the HeartSample

Spirit and soul. That is what our existence consists of according to the Hebrew Bible. But what about the heart? The Cambridge Dictionary (2023) gives us different ways to describe the heart:

1. Physically: The organ in your chest that sends the blood around your body.
2. Geographically: The firm central part of something.

But of course, we are talking about the symbolic meaning:

1. A person's character, or the place within a person, where feelings or emotions are considered to come from (Cambridge Dictionary, 2023)

In the Hebrew Bible, there are many words that describe the word heart. Most of the time, the word is also combined with “love”. With 858 mentions in the Bible, the word LEV has been used most for heart (and for love). To compare: on number 2 is the word LAY-BAB with 45 mentions.

The meaning of LEV represents the core of human existence. It is comprehensive when it comes to emotions, thoughts, intentions, character, desires, wisdom, understanding, choices and decisions, intellect, and moral tendency. All in all, the heart says something about the totality of someone’s existence: the visible and invisible of someone’s life.

Wow! What a mouthful. On top of all that, it has been mentioned so many times in the Bible! It is not that weird, because it is what God sees when He looks at a person:

“(…) but the Lord looks at the heart (LEV).” (1 Sam. 16:7)

God sees your heart, your whole being. Yet, as humans, the church, we tend to focus on the “sinful” things a person does. We look at the wrongdoings and assume the heart is wrong in its totality. While in fact, it might be just a piece of the totality of our LEV.

Humans are way too complex to “cancel” someone based on one or more sins in their lives. This is not the way God looks at us! He looks at our whole being, our LEV. And on top of that, and most importantly, there is grace!

Can you give it a try to see someone else’s heart, the whole being? Even the ones that did (you) wrong, that hurt you? What can you do today to see the LEV’s of these people, just like God does? 🫀