THE HEART AND SOUL

The Heart AND Soul

By Showanda Richardson, Ph. D.

Psalm 51:10 - New International Version (NIV)

¹⁰ Create in me a pure heart, O God,
    and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

A clean heart implies a careful and habitual (constant) guard against everything which tends to pollute the mind. All vicious (corrupt, wrong, nasty, hateful) company will be avoided as much as can be by those who have a clean heart. Intemperance (corruption, evil) will be carefully avoided by those who have an earnest concern to maintain a pure heart.

The text says, ‘Create in me a clean heart, O God’; and the next part says, ‘Renew a right spirit within me.’ This is what we want every day. If clean to-day, it will be dirty to-morrow. Therefore we must say, ‘Renew a right spirit within me’ over and over again, every day. 

Proverbs 4:23 - New International Version (NIV)

²³ Above all else, guard your heart,    for everything you do flows from it.

The “heart” comprehends not only feeling, but intellect and will. It is the sphere of the emotions, of hatred and of love. It  is the home of thought.

As if a man tending to his garden, he purges it from weeds, if he cuts off the upper part and leaves the roots, they will spring up again: so if we discipline our body and let our heart remain complacent it is nothing. The heart is the fountain, from which springs all evil, the root from which all sin grows. No honest man will lodge in a filthy house, or drink or eat except the vessel is clean; and God cannot abide in a foul, unclean heart.

If you wish to be God’s children indeed, the Holy Spirit must work in your heart.— 

Be Blessed,

Soror Richardson