A Daily Devotional with Pastor Doug Crouse  January 29, 2018  

A Healthy Heart   Scripture Reading – Ephesians 3:17 - 19 (NLT)

“Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”  

There is almost no one who does not understand the importance of the heart. To put it quite simply, when it stops beating, we stop living. If you are born with a heart that is not sick, it is an individual choice by diet, exercise and life choices to maintain, ‘A Healthy Heart’.

Spiritually speaking the same is true. It is an individual choice to accept the only cure for our sinful nature and know a new heart of forgiveness by accepting the sacrifice of God’s one and only Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Since this is the only way of a human to know eternal life with God it is of the utmost priority that we get the news out.

Once we have asked Christ into our lives, we need to welcome him into every area of our hearts, even praying as the Psalmist did that God would examine and reveal our hearts to us, because this is the part of us that God sees, and the base through which we serve and shine.

There is nothing that will nourish and establish our lives any better than knowing, growing and showing the love of God that is ours in Jesus. First of all, we need to understand how much that the Father loves us. So much so, that Jesus paid the ultimate price for our sins on the cross. This should be something that all of us as God’s children continually remind ourselves of. 

However, there is more than only understanding. We are all called to experience personally the greatness of the Father’s love. This is not a one-time experience, but an ever growing experience and expression to others of the love of God in Christ Jesus.

Then we will stand complete in the love of the Father with our roots going down deeper and our lives sharing the message of hope that only can be found in Jesus to a world that is dying to hear.  

Prayer Heavenly Father I ask for the Holy Spirit to open the eyes of my understanding to know more about Your great and unchanging love. I open up all of my heart and life to You once again in joyful surrender, search my heart O God. Fill me too with Your love that it would overflow through my life, touching others with Your grace I ask in Jesus name.  

Memory Verse:  1 John 5:14 NLT “And we are _________ that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him.”