The Heart of Wisdom: The Priority of the Heart

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION

“The heart wants what it wants.”

~Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) in a letter written in 1862

“Ask yourself: if there is something you supremely want to do, do you count as self-sacrifice the difficulties encountered or the other possible activities cast aside? You do not. The time when you deliberately say, ‘I must sacrifice this, that, or the other’ is when you do not supremely desire the end in view. At such times you are doing your duty, and that is admirable, but it is not love. But as soon as your duty becomes your love, the self-sacrifice is taken for granted, and, whatever the world calls it, you call it so no longer.”

~Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957), novelist and playwright (emphasis added)

“…the heart loves, the will chooses, and the mind justifies. The mind doesn’t direct the will. The mind is actually captive to what the will wants, and the will itself, in turn, is captive to what the heart wants.

“The trouble with human nature is that we are born with a heart that loves ourselves over and above everything else in this world, including God. In short, we are born slaves to the lust for self-gratification, i.e., concupiscence. That’s why, if left to ourselves, we will always love those things that make us feel good about ourselves, even as we depart more and more from God and his ways. Therefore, God must intervene in our lives in order to bring salvation…

“Now, in effect, [God’s work of] justification gives us a heart transplant. For at the same time that we receive the gift of justifying faith by which we are credited with Christ’s extrinsic righteousness, God also sheds abroad in our hearts a new love for him and one another. This new heart love for him, from him, naturally redirects our wills….

“[R]eason is not king in human beings, the heart is. Therefore, to change your actions, you must change your desires. But your desires will change, only if the Holy Spirit who wrote the Bible also writes his laws on your heart.”

~Dr. John Ashley Null, Anglican scholar at the University of Berlin (Humboldt)

“The heart’s desire for an ultimate object may be conquered, but it’s desire to have some object is unconquerable. The only way to dispossess the heart of an old affection is through the expulsive power of a new one.”

~Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847), Scottish minister, professor, and reformer

SERMON PASSAGE

The Heart of Wisdom: The Priority of the Heart

Selected Passages from Proverbs (ESV)

Proverbs 1

7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;

 fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Proverbs 2

1 My son, if you receive my words

 and treasure up my commandments with you,

2 making your ear attentive to wisdom

 and inclining your heart to understanding;

3 yes, if you call out for insight

 and raise your voice for understanding,

4 if you seek it like silver

 and search for it as for hidden treasures,

5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord

 and find the knowledge of God.

Proverbs 4

5 Get wisdom; get insight;

  do not forget, and do not turn away

  from the words of my mouth.

6 Do not forsake her, and she will keep you;

  love her, and she will guard you.

7 The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom,

  and whatever you get, get insight.

8 Prize her highly, and she will exalt you;

  she will honor you if you embrace her…

20 My son, be attentive to my words;

  incline your ear to my sayings.

21 Let them not escape from your sight;

  keep them within your heart.

22 For they are life to those who find them,

  and healing to all their flesh.

23 Keep your heart with all vigilance,

  for from it flow the springs of life.

24 Put away from you crooked speech,

  and put devious talk far from you.

25 Let your eyes look directly forward,

  and your gaze be straight before you.

26 Ponder the path of your feet;

  then all your ways will be sure.

27 Do not swerve to the right or to the left;

  turn your foot away from evil.

Proverbs 7

1 My son, keep my words

 and treasure up my commandments with you;

2 keep my commandments and live;

 keep my teaching as the apple of your eye;

3 bind them on your fingers;

 write them on the tablet of your heart.

4 Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”

 and call insight your intimate friend

Proverb 13

12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick,

  but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.

Proverbs 17

22 A joyful heart is good medicine,

  but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

Proverbs 21

2 Every way of a man is right in his own eyes,

 but the Lord weighs the heart.

Proverbs 27

19 As in water face reflects face,

  so the heart of man reflects the man.