Characteristics of a Heart Person
Has difficulty communicating a relationship with God.
Thinks of God in simple turns.
Emphasizes fantasies.
Finds help from Bible stories or other Christians.
Imagines God as Parent and/or Lover.
Worries about sin and feels guilty over past deeds.
Believes worship makes us feel better.
Loves impulsive acts for God (i.e. falling to knees, raising hands, etc.).
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What does it mean to love God with our heart?
The ‘heart’ in modern understanding is the emotional side of an individual capable of investing love in God. This goes along with the Greek type of love, storge, or Affection. It is often seen in the inner desires and emotions of the heart. It is the investment of feelings for God. To love God with one’s heart means loving God with one’s natural desires and emotions. It is a person’s inner feelings or what a person wants on the inside. The emotions of humanity are inner forces that move us. (The word, emotion, has ‘motion’ in it.) They make an impact on a person’s natural desires and will. The feelings in a person’s heart push him or her to go and take care of an infant crying or to go and care for a dying parent or to go and eat an apple. To love with one’s heart means to care. It is the most natural act of giving one’s self to another person.
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Biblical Examples of Loving God with Heart
The love of heart for God is in acts of desire. Biblical examples of this are Jesus? disciples feeling the need to sing as he triumphantly enters Jerusalem[1] or the woman anointing his feet with expensive oil and her tears.[2] Both of these are examples of a love for God that comes from someone?s heart. These are inner desires to care for God. And like an appetite, the love of God with heart is short-lived. It is a desire that comes and goes. Emotions are not long. A person experiences joy. There is a catharsis of happiness and then it goes away. "Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning."[3] The joy returns at another time but it does not remain. The natural urges of men and women come and go. And it is no different when loving God with these desires. A person feels like singing to God and he or she does this. A person feels a nudging moment during a worship service and responds accordingly. The emotions that accompany loving God with heart push a person's desires to unite with God. It is the hope of being one with God.
Mark chapter one has the story about a man with leprosy. He wants to be free from the pain of his condition and the estrangement from society. The story reads, "A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, 'If you choose, you can make me clean.' Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, 'I do choose. Be made clean!' Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, saying to him, 'See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.' But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter."[4] A reader of Mark can feel instantly the emotion that this man has. He loves God. There is a joy in his heart for what God has accomplished. The skin disease that once afflicted him is now gone. He is uncontrollably moved by God. God does this and he naturally loves God in return. The love that he offers is with his heart.
[1] Luke 19:28-40 [2] Luke 7:36-50 [3] Ps 30:5b [4] Mark 1:40-45
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