•Since 1900, cardiovascular disease has been the number one killer every year but 1918- the year of the great “Spanish Flu” pandemic ( killed between 20 – 40 million people).•In the United States of America, someone dies of

heart disease every 34 seconds- that equals more than 2500 people per day.

•Every 20 seconds, someone in the U.S.A. suffers a heart attack.

•There are almost six million hospitalizations per year in the U.S.A. due to cardiovascular disease.

•Many things can go wrong with our bodies/health, but it is certain that heart health (or the lack

thereof) is central to our well-being.

So too, the spiritual heart is central to our spiritual well-being, Prov.23:7 (KJV).

What is the Spiritual Heart of Man?

It’s certainly not the physical blood-pump located in your chest.

It is often equated with the mind, or intellect, as we saw in Prov.23:7.

It is not always equivalent to the mind, Phil.4:7. But it is unmistakably part of who we are, Mark 12:30:

1. Heart- our emotional self

2. Soul- our spiritual self

3. Mind - our intellectual self

4. Body- our physical self Therefore it must be kept with all diligence, Prov.4:23.

The Spiritual Heart is, more than any other part, central to who we are.

It is the symbolic seat of every facet of your personality that makes you the unique person you are.

It is the source of all your intellectual, moral, and emotional functions.

It is who you are much more than any physical trait, defining relationship (father, mother, etc.), occupational definition, or proclaimed statement of identity.

As the physical heart’s health largely determines our level of profitable activity, so too the spiritual heart’s health enables or limits our profitable activity in the Cause of Christ!

Therefore, true religion, and the practice of it, must come from the heart! James 1:26-27

What then is Heart-Felt Religion?

It is not religion emanates purely from the mind- which would make it academic, 1Cor.1:18-26; 2:1-5.

It is not religion that is only concerned with the body- which make it works-based, Col.2:20-23; Eph.2:8-9.

It is religion in which the mind and body are tethered to the “honest and good heart” (Luke 8:15) so that it thinks and works as it should!

Let’s constantly remind ourselves that true religion comes from the heart.

We believe with the heart, Rom.10:1-10.

We love from the heart, Mark 12:28-34.

We obey from the heart, Rom.6:1-18.

We sing from the heart, Col.3:16.

We pray from the heart, Psalm 51:10-17.

And we give from the heart, 2Cor.9:6-7.

How’s your heart doing?

Done a spiritual E.K.G. lately?