Keep the Heart

“Your heart rate is too low,” my doctor said.

At a recent physical, my doctor did a baseline EKG and discovered that my resting heart rate was far below normal. I then found myself searching for a cardiologist for the first time in my nearly forty-eight years of life. A week later, I was given a heart rate monitor to wear. The contraption was glued to my chest and I wore it 24/7 for a week. I hope to soon learn the results.

As we well know—whether we passed 9th grade biology or not—the heart is what keeps us alive. This muscle pumps blood through the circulatory system to the rest of the body and beats about 100,000 times a day. It rests in the center of our chest and is central to our life and wellness.

I don’t know about you, but I rarely think about the work my heart is doing and until I hit forty, I hardly thought about what it needed to remain healthy. But our heart does need monitoring and care. That’s why the doctor listens to it at each visit and urges patients to stay away from fried and fatty foods.

The Bible talks about the heart a lot. Not so much our physical heart—though we ought to steward its care. Rather, the Bible talks about our spiritual heart, what lies at the center of who we are. Contrary to cheesy romance movies, when the Bible talks about our heart, it doesn’t mean the source of our feelings as opposed to our thoughts, as in “just follow your heart.” Rather, the Bible uses the word “heart” to refer to the core of who we are and it includes our thoughts, feelings, desires, choices, and will. All these act on and influence the other, with our desires often leading the way.

The Bible also teaches us that the heart is fallen in sin—a condition which began with the fall of man in Genesis 3. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9). It is not our circumstances or what other people do or say that is the source of our problems. As Jesus taught, it is not what is outside of us that defiles us, but what is in us. “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person” (Mark 7:20-23). James teaches that disordered desires of the heart cause our conflicts in life, “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?” (James 4:1).

Because of this, Proverbs urges us to guard the heart, “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life” (4:23). The Hebrew word for “keep” is the same word used to talk about the watchmen who stand watch on the walls of the city, alert and ready to respond when enemies come near. The word is used to mean preserving or maintaining as well as protecting and guarding.[1] When it comes to keeping our heart, we need to both preserve and protect it.

To preserve our heart, we keep it healthy. We nurture it and tend to it by feasting on the Word of God. We allow the Word to examine and try our hearts. God gave us His Spirit who uses the Word to sanctify our hearts—to change and transform us from the inside out. The more we study and meditate on the Word, the more we see the true state of our hearts. We see those things which don’t belong, the sins which we so easily ignore. We see the pride, self-righteousness, and selfishness. We the see ways in which we fail to love God with all heart, our disordered desires and idols we worship—those things we look to for hope and life and meaning apart from God. As the Spirit uses the Word to convict us and show us our sin, we look to his grace to remind us of the gospel and who we are in Christ. We confess and repent and rejoice in the gospel which saves us. The Spirit then helps us remove those idols we worship and grow in greater love and knowledge of our Savior.

We also must guard our heart, keeping watch for those things which tempt, deceive, and draw us into sin, including ungodly influences from the world and temptations from evil. As Ephesians 6 reminds us, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (v.12). We wear our Ephesians 6 armaments into battle each day, aware that arrows are flying at us left and right. And we follow Jesus’ command to watch and pray (Matthew 26:41).

In all our heart-keeping, we must never forget that God is the ultimate heart-keeper for nothing can separate us from his great love for us in Christ. And more, he has provided the means of grace for us to preserve and protect our heart. We have the gift of the Spirit who lives within us, the very power of God—the same power who raised Christ from the dead. We have all the promises of God fulfilled in Jesus Christ. We have access to the throne of grace. We have the very Word of God to read, study, and meditate upon. And we have the community of faith which walks beside us in the journey.

No doubt, I am very aware of my physical heart these days and the need to monitor it. To keep and protect it. Even as I do so, I know it has an expiration date. However, my spiritual heart does not. How much more ought I to keep it? For it is my life. “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life” (4:23).

Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash

[1] With All Your Heart by A. Craig Troxel, p. 155.

The Regular Work of Weeding the Heart

My son and I recently volunteered at a local nature center, helping to eradicate invasive plant species. The center’s naturalist gave us a tutorial on the plants to look out for, how to remove them, and provided the necessary tools to do so.

I decided to tackle the smaller plants, thinking they would be easier to remove. It didn’t take long for me to discover that while they appeared small above the ground—just little green shoots popping up here and there—below the soil, their roots stretched out wide. I tugged and pulled and found the roots went several feet sideways from the plant. The bigger plants required even more effort, using the special tools provided by the nature center. At the end of the afternoon, we were all sore and tired.

The naturalist pointed out that when an invasive species is removed, native plants instantly start growing again. Their seeds have laid there in the soil, ready and waiting for the opportunity to grow. While the work seemed overwhelming because of how many plants there were on the property, this news gave us hope that all the work was worth it.

This plant removal experience presented for me a clear picture of the invasive nature of idols in our hearts. Those things we love and worship apart from God; the things we place our hope and trust in to make our lives better. All those things we turn to for refuge apart from our Savior—things like comfort, control, success, and acceptance.

Some idols seem small and insignificant. Powerless even. Perhaps idols like that of comfort—one which everyone worships in some form or another. It’s an idol often born out of the need to de-stress and relax, yet one that quickly becomes a go-to savior at the end of every day. However innocent our idols seem, their roots run deep and the longer we let them grow, the more work is required to remove them.

Those bigger idols—the ones we’ve worshipped for so long, it’s hard to imagine not having them in our life—are like the weeds that have grown into trees, blocking out the light of the sun. Over time, we’ve grown used to the darkness. Even worse, we don’t notice the ways our idols slowly advance into deeper recesses of our hearts. These idols are ones we’ve built our life around. They rule over and govern our choices; they reign over our days. Like the removal of invasive plants, it often requires a team effort to identify and remove such idols. This is when we need the help of trusted and godly friends to come alongside us in the effort. We need them to shine a light on things we can’t see. We need them to show us the necessary tools—the means of grace—to use in their eradication. We need their encouragement to continue on in the work, as long as it takes.

At the nature center, my son and I learned that invasive plants must be removed down to the roots. If we just pull and break them at the stalk, they will only grow back stronger than before. This is a good reminder that temporary solutions, while helpful in the moment, do not get to the roots of our idolatry. We need more than distractions or inspirational messages to deal with idols of the heart. We need the transforming work of the gospel, through the power of the Spirit, to uproot our lesser loves. We need the Word of God, which is “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). We need the power of prayer, wherein we abide in Christ and receive the benefits of our union with him. We need near constant reminders of Christ’s love set on us in eternity past, of his life lived for us, of his sacrifice made on our behalf.

As we identify and uproot idols in our hearts, we must also replace those idols with greater love for our Savior. If we don’t, in due time, we’ll simply exchange one idol for another. This requires a different kind of work, a work of gazing upon the infinite perfections, the gracious love, and the radiant glories of our Savior. It requires a more powerful affection than that for our idols; it requires a love born out of gratitude for all we have received. It will take an eternity to plumb the depths of Christ’s love for us. Perhaps that is why Paul prayed for the Ephesians that they would have “strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (3:18-19). May this be our prayer as well.

Just as weed and invasive plant removal is not a one-and-done thing, neither is the work of weeding the heart for idols. It’s a regular work. We are always on alert for and evaluating our hearts for lesser loves. The more we identify, repent, and turn from idols back to our first love, the more light and life will shine in our hearts. And the more fruit will thrive and grow.

For more on ways to evaluate the heart for those things we often look to for life and hope apart from Christ, click here.

A Virus and the Idols of My Heart

C.S. Lewis once wrote, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” The recent events brought on by the Coronavirus are shouting pretty loud, wouldn’t you say?

At least it is in my own heart.

Everyone has been impacted by this pandemic in a myriad of ways: lost jobs, cancelled plans, missed friends and family, and most notably a sickness that continues to grow and spread. Children who would otherwise be in school are now learning from home. Our movements are restricted to what is most necessary. Those who are sick wait for hours to find testing and treatment. And we don’t know when it will end.

Trials such as this shine a light in the dark recesses of our hearts, revealing what we cherish most. What we love above all. What we put our hope in. What we trust in. The god that we serve.

In my own heart, this pandemic highlights my idol of control. I’m a planner at heart. I enjoy making lists and crossing them off. Next to my computer lies a list of reservations I need to make for our long-awaited family trip to Europe in May. Our epic homeschool trip. The one where we were going to follow the Allied invasion and tour battle fields from WWII. The one where we would visit the Ten Boom house we’ve been reading about in The Hiding Place. We’ve had to cancel the trip and I can’t help but feel sad.

This situation points out to me how much I trust in my plans and worship them. I rest in those plans. I find hope in those plans. And with everything in my life now cancelled, I am reminded afresh of James’ admonition: “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that’” (James 4:13-15). 

James reminds us that we don’t control the future. God does. We don’t plan our lives. God does. He wrote the story of our days before time began. It’s already etched in the annals of time and nothing can change it. He determines the plan, we live it out.

I also see this idol when my heart bristles at losing the freedom of mobility. I am a homebody and love sitting at home reading a book or working on a writing project. I don’t need to be surrounded by people all the time. But I want to stay at home on my own terms. I want to be able to determine when I come and go. I don’t like the control taken from me.

This idol also reveals itself in my fears for the future. My husband just heard his pay was cut and we worry about his job security. I find myself looking ahead and wondering what will happen if things continue for a few more weeks. A few more months. Not knowing what the future holds makes me nervous. Worried. Anxious.

No doubt, a pandemic can highlight the idols of our heart. And for myself, I am thankful that it has. It’s easy to live life as though I am the ruler of my personal kingdom. It’s easy to go about my day trusting in my plans and relying on my bank account. It’s easy to live as though I have control over my days. It takes a situation like this to remind me what is true and to point me to the One who reigns over all things.

While I don’t have control, I know who does. The One who flung the stars across the sky and spoke this world into being holds all things in his hands. He is not surprised or caught off guard by anything. He knows the end from the beginning and governs all things, from the gravity that keeps me in my chair to the speck of dust dancing across my desk. This is the real and true God. Anything else I trust in is false and counterfeit. There is nothing and no one in this world who can rescue me from the curse of sin and death but God through his Son, Jesus Christ. The eternal Son of God came to live in this sin-sick world and live a perfect life in my place. He took my sin upon him and died the death I deserve. In doing so, he freed me from looking for hope in lesser things. He freed me from looking for life in anything else but him. He opened my eyes to see that nothing else I put my hope and trust in compares to him. He alone is my refuge and my deliverer.

This truth anchors me in the current chaos.

And so, as I sit enclosed in my house and wonder what the future holds, I have to turn from the idol of control and rest in the God who controls the world. He is a good God who only does what is good. I may not know what that good will be, but I trust in the God who does. For I know I am safe in his hands.

How about you? Are you learning anything about your heart during this time?

On Invasive Vines, Our Hearts, and Cautionary Tales

We once bought a foreclosure and renovated it. The house was a complete gut job, both inside and out. Its original 1980’s wallpaper covered nearly every room in the house. So we removed walls, stripped out cabinets, and redid all the flooring. The cedar shake roof was worn and covered in mold, so we replaced it with a metal roof. We bought new appliances, bathtubs, and even a new air conditioner.

Then we got to work outside.

It was difficult to tell from the street how big the yard was because an invasive tree had taken over the acre and a half lot, shading out all the other trees and bushes. Brazilian Pepper Trees are native to South America and have invaded much of southern Florida. They create an impenetrable canopy, blocking sunlight and harming native plants and trees. You can’t simply spray weed killer on them and expect them to die. They must be removed by hand. Needless to say, it took us a few years before they were eradicated from our property. And even then, we would periodically find evidence of the trees creeping and stretching their way across the yard again, and we’d have to once again do the hard work to remove them.

We now live in Georgia where another non-native plant, the Kudzu vine, blankets the roadsides. It too is just as invasive. When it’s out of control, all you see is the vine. It wraps itself around trees, power lines, and abandoned buildings, crisscrossing from one standing object to the next—like an intricate spider’s web.

There’s a lot of similarity to these invasive plants and the idols of our heart.

Like the Brazilian Pepper or the Kudzu vine, idols are an invasive species in our hearts; they don’t belong there. We were created to love and worship our Maker and Creator God alone; he is the true King of our hearts. He alone is worthy of all worship. He alone can rescue and save us. He alone gives our life meaning and purpose.

But because of the fall of man, our hearts are broken by sin. We don’t love God with all our heart. Instead, we turn to worship false gods. We look to substitute gods and give them honor and praise and worship rather than the One who made us. We turn to these idols to give our life meaning, hope, and purpose. We look to people, work, achievements, comforts, material things, and more to give us what only God can give.

These idols become like vines, taking deep root in our hearts. They grow and spread and stretch their way throughout our hearts as we turn to them time and again for help and rescue. They twist themselves around our heart, choking our love for God. They grow dense, blocking the Light of Life. Like a tree draped in Kudzu, we grow weak without the spiritual nourishment that comes when we abide in and cling to Christ alone. We find ourselves spiritually parched and our growth stagnant.

Like any invasive plant in our yard, idols don’t disappear when we ignore them or pretend they aren’t there. Or when we minimize their influence in our lives. They just continue to grow and spread. We must take drastic measures to remove them. We must rip them up by the roots. We must eradicate them. This is hard work and like the Pepper Trees in our yard, we need help from others. A team of friends came to our house and helped us remove the trees. Likewise, we can’t tackle our idols on our own; we need godly and wise friends who can help us identify the things in our life we worship apart from God. They can help us see how we’ve turned the good things God gives us into something we turn to for life and hope. And they can encourage us as we do the hard work, digging in, and ripping them out. 

The thing about idolatry is that eradicating it is a lifetime work. It’s something we have to tend to each day. Like a gardener looking after his garden, we have to look after our hearts. We must be on the lookout for idols and guard against any counterfeit loves. It’s easy to remove one idol only to replace it with another one. That’s why we must also plant a greater love for Christ in its place. We do this by focusing on who he is and what he has done. We do this by dwelling on the gospel and what it means for us to be saved by grace. We do this by abiding in Christ through our union with him. And the more our love for our Savior grows—the more we find in Christ our meaning, hope, identity, purpose, and life—the less we’ll turn to our idols and the weaker their grip on us will be.

The Bible is filled with agrarian analogies and it’s no wonder; there is much we can learn from observing this world God created. Perhaps there’s a good lesson learned from invasive species in our own backyard. May the destruction such species cause be a cautionary tale for the soil of our hearts.  

Psalm 81, Idolatry, and the Satisfaction of our Hearts

Have you ever had the experience where you were focused on learning a certain lesson and then you saw that lesson everywhere? Perhaps you were convicted of a certain sin and over the course of the week, you heard a sermon that spoke about that sin, then read a passage in Scripture about it, and then a friend shared their own struggle with it. Or maybe you were reminded of God’s providential care in your life multiple times and places and each time you thought, “It’s that same lesson again!”

As people who are quick to forget, we need regular reminders, especially when God is working in a particular area of our life. When I read the Old Testament, I see a lesson God’s people learned over and over. It’s a lesson I’m still learning. It’s a lesson that is central to our faith, so central, it goes back to our purpose and meaning as created beings. What is that lesson?

Life is found in God alone.

Psalm 81 and Israel’s Idolatry

In Psalm 81, Asaph called the people to worship the Lord God, but after a few verses, the psalm quickly turned to a proclamation from God, reminding Israel of who God is and what he had done for them. They had turned their hearts away from him and he called them back to himself. “Hear, O my people, while I admonish you! O Israel, if you would but listen to me! There shall be no strange god among you; you shall not bow down to a foreign god” (vv.8-9). He pointed back to the Exodus, to their redemption story: “I relieved your shoulder of the burden; your hands were freed from the basket. In distress you called, and I delivered you” (Psalm 81:6-7).

God reminded them of his covenant relationship with him, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt” (v.10). These were the words he spoke before the giving of the law at Mount Sinai— the law that reflected who he is and steadfast love for his people. Centuries later, Jesus would tell his disciples that the law was written about him. That’s because he is the source of all life.

Yet God’s people have always sought life outside the One True God. Immediately after their deliverance from Egypt, when they lacked food and water, they looked not to God for help, but longed to return to slavery in Egypt. Throughout their history, they followed the same pattern. When they were in need, they looked for rescue elsewhere. They looked to the false god, Baal, for hope. They looked for rescue from a King, rather than the King of Kings. They looked for help from their pagan neighbors. In the New Testament, the Pharisees placed their hope in their genetic heritage and in their obedience to the law.

And today, our own hearts look for life outside of God. We don’t worship a wooden statue, but we look to idols for help and hope just the same. We pursue success, affirmation, wealth, or status to give our lives meaning and purpose. We look for hope and joy in changed circumstances and new things. We think “If only ______happened, then I would be happy.” We attempt to fill the void with relationships and experiences, only to crash in despair when they fail to deliver.

The Satisfaction of Our Hearts

When we turn from God to false idols, he gives us over to our desires. “So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels” (Psalm 81:12). God permits us to chase after false gods so we would see the futility. So we would see how empty and meaningless it is. So we would realize that life does not exist outside of him; true joy and satisfaction are found in his presence alone. “But you would be fed with the finest of wheat; with honey from the rock I would satisfy you” (Psalm 81:16).

Psalm 81 reminds us our God is a generous God. He is rich beyond measure. All that we need is found in him and he is happy to supply it. “Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.” (Psalm 81:10). Didn’t he prove this to us in giving us the greatest gift of all, his Son, Jesus Christ? In Christ, we are blessed beyond anything the psalmist could have imagined. He made us right with God. He opened the way into the holy of holies so we could come to the throne of grace. He blessed us with eternal life and joy forever with him.

Do you feast on the paltry offerings of this world and still find yourself hungry? Do you desire more? Psalm 81 reminds us that real life and lasting satisfaction is within our reach. Look to Christ for the satisfaction of your soul.

Launch Team for Idols of a Mother's Heart

Are you a mom or know a mom? My next book, Idols of a Mother's Heart (Focus for Women), releases in December. I’m excited to tell you about this book because it’s a reflection of the work God has done in me in recent years.

While the Lord uses many circumstances, situations, and hardships in our lives to transform and sanctify us, he also uses motherhood to make us more like Christ. In my own life, God has used motherhood to reveal idols in my heart, those things I turn to for hope and life outside of him. Sometimes, those idols have been good things, like sleep, time to myself, routines, or the desire to do motherhood well. Sometimes those idols have been finding my meaning, purpose, and identity in what I do as a mom, rather than in who I am in Christ. My book, Idols of a Mother’s Heart, unpacks idolatry in our lives, what it looks like, and what the gospel has to say to it. The specific idols of motherhood I explore are: children, control, comfort, success, and approval.

Each chapter includes a prayer and discussion questions. The book can be read individually or in a group with other moms or even with spiritual mentors.

Here’s what a few of the endorsers have said about the book:

"Page by page, Christina Fox peels back the layers of a mother's heart, helping her pluck out idols until there is nothing left but the grace of God. Idols of a Mother's Heart is a convicting surgery of the soul, as Fox delicately deals with our rogue, wild hearts, continually pointing us back to the transforming work of Jesus Christ – the only one worthy of our worship. With penetrating questions, humble honesty, and gospel freedom on every page, this book will not only stretch and challenge a mother, but point her to the joy and satisfaction found in her Savior alone.”

—Laura Wifler, Co-Founder of Risen Motherhood

“Christina Fox’s heart is on every page as she longs for moms to have a right view of how God sees them. With the gentle nudge of a friend, Christina encourages women to enter into mothering from the only safe place—rest and fullness in Christ.”

—Holly Mackle, author of Same Here, Sisterfriend: Mostly True Tales of Misadventures in Motherhood and Little Hearts, Prepare Him Room.

“In Idols of a Mother’s Heart, Christina Fox writes with a wealth of wisdom and theological understanding. She exposes the idols we often battle in motherhood—control, comfort, achievement, and approval—and helps diagnosis the problem in our own hearts. Most importantly, Christina points to the grace of God by encouraging mothers to turn from idolatry and find life in Christ alone.”

—Melissa Kruger, author of In All Things: A Nine-Week Devotional Bible Study on Unshakeable Joy

I am looking for readers who would be interested in helping me get the word out about this book. What’s in it for you? A free book! What do I need from you? For starters, I will need you to write a review on Amazon and share about the book on social media. If you have a blog, I’d love for you to share about it there as well. I will be sending out an email to launch team members with all the details in the next couple of weeks.

If you’d like to join the launch team, enter your email below and I will contact you with the all the details. I look forward to connecting with you! Please note, the last day to fill your info below is October 2.

Update 10/3/18: The registration for the launch team has closed and I’ve removed the sign up form. Thanks to all those who entered. I will be contacting you soon.