Heart disease

Do not harden your hearts. — Psalm 95:8

Pharmaceutical companies make billions of dollars selling drugs that prevent hardening of the arteries, a condition that can lead to heart attacks, which kill thousands of people every year.

A more serious condition than hardening of the arteries, however, is hardening of the heart, and it cannot be prevented by any wonder drug. The prophet Zechariah warned the Israelites about it. They had hardened their hearts and refused to listen to the words of the Lord. Symptoms of this deadly condition were their refusal to execute true justice and their failure to show mercy and compassion (Zech. 7:9). As a result, the Lord became angry and stopped listening to them (v. 13).

While it’s important to keep plaque from forming in our arteries, it’s even more important to keep our hearts from becoming callous to people who are important to God: widows, orphans, aliens, and the poor (v. 10).

It’s crucial to follow our doctor’s orders to keep our arteries from hardening. But it’s even more crucial to obey God to keep our hearts from becoming hardened to the needs of others.

Ask God to bring to mind a person who needs the help of someone with a soft heart. — Julie Ackerman Link

If I can right a human wrong,

If I can help to make one strong,

If I can cheer with smile or song,

Lord, show me how. — Kleizer

READ: Zechariah 7:8-14

To love Christ is to have a heart for others.

The Bible in one year:

• 1 Kings 13-15

• Proverbs 19:1-15