Overflow

During the course of my week, I found myself teaching one of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories, which usually involves delving into the dark condition of the human heart. As I led the discussion, a verse popped into my mind and I shared it with the class in light of the topic of the heart. In Luke 6:45, Jesus spoke to his disciples and said that the nature of the heart can be seen—either good or evil by what comes out of the mouth—its fruit. The version I memorized reads: “For out of the overflow of his heart, his mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45b, NIV). This set me thinking. In the multitudes he encountered, Jesus found both resistance to and acceptance of the salvation he offered, and it was the condition of the receptors on the human heart that made all the difference. Those with good reception understood, but the warnings fell on the deaf ears of all those whose receptors were in a state of disrepair. Proverbs 4:23 offers advice for caring for our hearts and tells us to “guard” our hearts because “it is the wellspring of life.” Think about what comes out of our hearts and onto our lips on a daily basis. We are created expressly for the glory and pleasure of God, but we so often fail miserably at completing this task. We are so dependent on him to provide for us, and we take his provision eagerly and praise him for the blessings—as Psalm 105:28 puts it, “[We] are satisfied with good.” It’s the next verse that gives me pause. Psalm 105:29 says, “You hide Your face, they are dismayed” (NASB). What happens when we haven’t hidden his word in our hearts, when our faith is running on fumes, when circumstances bring pain instead of pleasure to our lives? What comes out of our hearts when we can’t clearly see his plan and it looks like he’s hidden his face from us? All the junk we’ve stuffed into it (and packed down to make room for more instead of allowing God to cleanse us from the hurts and doubts of the past) emerges. We’re so full of junk that his spirit gets crowded out. One thought continues to resonate in my mind. We were spoken into existence by the words of our creator—through The Word, and out of the overflow of his heart we were created and exist. Out of the overflow of his heart, he sent Jesus to die for our sins. God sees the condition of our hearts and he chooses to love us anyway. I don’t know about you, but that’s the kind of overflow I want.