Hearts and Water

Photo Credit: Holly Biata

You’ve just finished your morning run, just Zumba’d your socks off, just chased the dog around the neighborhood, just walked off the basketball court. You’re exhausted. You’re out of breath. You are ready to lie down and die. And then…water. (Ah.) Few things in life are as wonderful and refreshing as a tall glass of fresh, clean water; it’s the drink of life. By the same token, few things are as grotesque and repulsive as a tall glass of stagnant, stinky, dirty water; it…is the drink of death.

Our heart can be compared to a glass of water. There is nothing quite like a pure, fresh, clean heart. It’s beautiful and wonderful and full of love; it’s a heart of life. On the other hand, a stagnant heart…a heart that has been left unattended and become toxic due to lack of time spent in prayer and neglect of His Word…is a heart of death. The word “stagnant” is defined as having no current or flow and often having an unpleasant smell as a consequence. If His Spirit isn’t flowing through us daily, rather than the love of God filling us, we can be filled with bitterness, jealousy, envy, negativity, and the like…causing our heart to stink.

Stagnation is a result of the water absorbing toxins in the air that surrounds it. What's to be learned from this? The places we go and the people we surround ourselves with determine whether we’re filled with life or death. If we walk with Him daily and surround ourselves with pureness and positivity, we can expect to have a heart of life and His love to flow through us. But if we neglect our relationship with Him and instead surround ourselves with filthiness and negativity, we can expect to become stagnant and His Spirit and love to be stifled within us. 

Two things to keep in mind:

1. Anytime you see pests near water, it’s a sign the water is stagnant.

Take inventory of your life; if you discover that there are human pests (pessimistic/rebellious/death-speaking folks) surrounding you, it’s probably a sign that your heart has become stagnant and could use a cleansing. 

2. If water ever has a bitter taste to it, the only way to fix it is to get a fresh/clean glass of water.

Jesus said, “But the words you speak come from the heart…” (Matthew 15:18 NLT). If ever we find the love of God absent in us and instead negative and bitter words coming out of us, it’s time for a heart cleanse.

Proverbs says, “God loves the pure-hearted” (22:11 MSG). So, how do we get there? The more we connect with God the purer our hearts become. So we talk to Him. We read His Word. We go to church to hear His Word preached.  We surround ourselves with pure people who love God. And if ever we feel our heart becoming stagnant, we take inventory and refocus on the aforementioned things.

If you take a water hose and let the flow of fresh water pour into a glass of stagnant water, as the water level starts to rise and pour over the top of the glass the microbes and toxins begin to dilute and eventually dissipate...resulting in a glass that is filled with fresh, clean, pure water. And so it is in a spiritual sense – as we refocus and His Spirit begins to freshly flow through us, the stale and bitter emotions fade and His love again refills us. 

"...God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.” (1 John 4:16 GW)

If His Spirit is flowing in us, His love will be flowing out of us. How’s your heart? If you feel a little stagnant, take some time today to refocus so that you can be refilled and refreshed anew.

by Brandi Burton