Figuratively speaking, the “heart” of a matter is where you find its true substance, what we should pay careful attention to, as all the rest around it might just be what appears to be, according to how it’s perceived from outside and the interpretation that we each give to it.

I believe that we were asked to “love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind” (Matt. 22:37) because that’s where we process all the thoughts and intents of our inner being, and where we can exercise our free will and majesty of choice, making all of our independent decisions in life.

That’s where God wants to be loved by us, because it’s in that place called “soul” that even He cannot decide for us! It’s there that we have full control of our lives and that we are able to freely process our feelings and thoughts and make our decisions!

There are several Hebrew and Greek words that were translated as ‘heart’ in our modern Bibles, but it mostly comes down to three main original words:

1. Hebrew ‘leb’, meaning: heart, will, feelings, intellect.
2. Hebrew ‘lebeb’, meaning: heart, understanding, awareness.
3. Greek ‘kardia’, meaning: heart, thoughts, feelings.

Think of the verse: “The word of God is sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart!” (Hebrews 4:12)

What it’s actually saying is that God’s Word is so powerful that it can actually separate our soul from our spirit and even discern the thoughts and intents of our heart, where we make our free choices and decisions! That’s how Jesus was able to look into people’s hearts and discern their true intentions, instead of judging them for their behavior …

You might say that there are really 3 persons in each one of us: 1) the one that others see, according to how they perceive us from outside (body), 2) the person that we think we are, according to how we see ourselves (soul), and 3) the person that we truly are, according to how God knows we are, because He can see the most hidden part of our being (spirit).

The Bible says that we were “created in the image of God” (Gen. 1:27), and it’s interesting that, like the Trinity, our “whole being” is made of three parts: 1) body, 2) soul, 3) spirit.

“I pray God your whole being, spirit, soul and body, be preserved blameless.” (1Thes. 5:23)

The New Testament also says that we are the “temple of God” (1Cor. 3:16) and, just like the temple in Jerusalem, our personal temple is made of three main areas:

Our body, which like the “Outer Court” of the temple is exposed to the world around us and communicates with it;

Our soul, the “Inner Court” where we can exercise our priesthood and responsibility of administering the temple of our life with our choices and decisions;

Our spirit, which like the “Holiest of all” is hidden behind a veil and it’s seldom seen or recognized even by those who are the closest to us.

It’s through our physical senses that we communicate with the physical world around us, taking that information and sending it to our mind, where it’s processed with our thoughts.

And it’s through our spiritual senses that we also communicate with the spiritual world and, if we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we can commune with the Lord in worship and prayer in our “Holiest of all”, as “the veil is rent” (Mark 15:38) and “done away in Christ” (2Cor. 3:14).

Finally, between our “Outer Court” (body) and our “Holiest of all” (spirit), where God’s Spirit dwells and “bears witness with our spirit that we are His children” (Rom. 8:16), we have our “Inner Court” (soul), where we’re exercising our freedom of choice, after processing all the information that reaches us through our thoughts and emotions, whether it comes from the physical or spiritual world. It’s in that dialogue between our heart and mind that we process the information and use our free will to make decisions in life …

Proverbs 4:23 tells us to “keep our heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life”, and I believe that it’s vital to carefully guard this very important part of our inner being called “heart”, because that’s where our feelings and thoughts and particularly our will are located, and where we make the decisions that direct our lives. It’s in our soul that we exercise our God given freedom, what we call our “majesty of choice”!

In the coming articles we will explore how to cultivate an intimate relationship with the Lord in order to carefully guard our heart. Don’t miss them!
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