My blogs in the last 2 days have been focussing on the power of your mind in different circumstances of life. Today I want to look at another aspect of our minds that we have control over – whether we have a big or a little heart.
A big heart is vulnerable in its relationship with God. It will submit to what pleases God and this will affect all other relationships, such as forgiving others just as Jesus forgives us. A big heart will listen to others and generously serve others with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness (Gal. 5:22).
A little heart, on the other hand, is closed to God, mostly, because it is soft on itself with a narrow outlook on life. It will be selective to who it relates to. Negative attitudes, minimal or selective generosity and little experience of another’s burdens will all mark a heart as small.
CS Lewis wrote: “There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket – safe, dark, motionless, airless – it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.” [1]
A big heart isn’t held back by fear but will share with others what Jesus has shared with us. Our Father’s heart is magnanimous and so, as His child, our hearts will demonstrate magnanimity to others, by openly witnessing the freedom, love and joy that is to be found in our Saviour.
“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness” (Col. 2:6-7 NIV).
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[1] (From https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/980060-there-is-no-safe-investment-to-love-at-all-is accessed 28.2.22).