OUR DAILY BREAD             Sat., July 8, 1995  
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READ: Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24

                
               SPIRITUAL HEART CARE

      "Keep your heart with all diligence."

                        -- Proverbs 4:23

You're up at the crack of dawn, doing your exercises.
You're not going to let your heart get weak!  You've
trimmed the fat from your diet.  You get regular
cholesterol checks.  And you're exercising four times
a week to keep your cardiovascular system in peak
condition.

But you've let your spiritual heart turn to mush.  
Preoccupied with the temporary, you've neglected the
eternal.  You seldom read the Bible anymore.  Your
prayers are lists of requests to God to make your 
life more comfortable and pain-free.  By the time
you reach the church door after the sermon, you can't
recall what the pastor said because you were thinking
about something else.

If this describes you, it's time to get into a
spiritual heart-care program.  It begins where David
(a man after God's own heart) was in Psalm 139 -- by
acknowledging that God knows all about your heart.  
It continues in Psalm 51:10, "Create in me a clean
heart, O God."  And it results in the prayer of
Psalm 19:14, "Let...the meditation of my heart be
acceptable in Your sight, O Lord."

Taking care of your body makes sense, but it makes
even more sense to gain spiritual fitness by walking
with the Lord.  That's an exercise program with   
eternal value!

                                -- David C. Egner


        Dear Jesus, take my heart and hand,
            And grant me this, I pray:
      That I through Your sweet love may grow
            More like You day by day.

                                -- Garrison
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           THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
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         To keep spiritually fit,
        keep walking with the Lord.  
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THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR:  Psalms 137-139

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