Depending on our sensitives, it can be all too easy to ‘take things to heart’: a careless comment, sharp answer, thoughtless glance or even a well-intended joke can be ‘taken to heart’ in a way that harms relationships, though they were never intended to do so.
Of course, it works the other way too: a loving word, encouraging comment, warm gesture or even a smiling greeting can be ‘taken to heart’ and leave an impression on us far more easily than might be expected.
Last Sunday morning, we saw how Moses described in Deuteronomy ch 4 what the LORD had done to both rescue and relate to His people: sustaining them throughout History, miraculously rescuing them from slavery in Egypt and dramatically giving them the 10 commandments so that they would have clarity on what it meant to have a living relationship with Him.
Moses urged them:
“Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other.” (Deut 4:39)
We know how powerful it is to take things to heart (literally: lay it over our inner being) from everyday experience described above. Moses urged that their relationship with the LORD was shaped by understanding who He is and what He had done. How much more important was it to have their lives shaped by the LORD being God: It meant that they could gain perspective for the present and hope for the future as they based their lives on the certainty of what He had done in the past.
This side of the cross we can see more clearly what the LORD being God has meant. How much more should we ‘take it to heart’ and be shaped by that truth!
Spencer Shaw