Heart disease is the number one killer in America. And spiritual heart disease is the number one killer in the church. Today we begin our Advent/Christmas series that will help us to develop healthy hearts. We’ll try to do so by looking at how the main characters of the story each responded to God. We’ll learn that healthy hearts say yes to God!
The older I get, sometimes it gets harder it is to say yes to God’s big tasks than when I was a young, passionate, more naive person. What about you? Isn’t that true for all of us?
Today, we’re going to look at Zechariah’s encounter with the angel and his response. Read Luke 1.5-25.
To prevent heart disease, change your lifestyle!
Physically, to prevent heart disease, heart experts tell us to …
- Manage our weight
- Quit smoking
- Eat well
- Exercise
It’s not much different for preventing spiritual heart disease …
- Watch the thing that distract us and weigh us down
- Get rid of damaging/sinful habits
- Get proper spiritual nourishment
- Exercise, or practice our faith
I encourage you to pray throughout Advent: "God, give me a healthy heart so that I will always say yes to you!"
One of the ways of describing what we (as the church) do is the work of heart-shaping. I dream of a place full of people with healthy hearts, people whose hearts are being shaped and transformed by God’s love, people who eagerly say yes to God!