HEART EYES and HEART LIES, a Cautionary Tale

According to The New Strong's Concise Concordance and Vine's Concise Dictionary of the Bible, I found the Old and New Testament meanings to the word heart.  I tried to boil it down and simplify these terms, for my own understanding. My major purpose is to "UNDERSTAND" the heart/mind connections. One without the other is MISSED UNDERSTANDING. The heart and mind go hand in hand. The HEART, is the seat of understanding, represents our true character, but conceals it. The MIND knows the heart and perceives deceiving notions our hearts can breed. Need both heart and mind to work together by His design. It takes courage to want to honestly see ourselves as we truly are, loved yet needy sheep! We can ask God to open the eyes of our hearts. Heart eyes see truth and lies. We need a decidedly obedient mind to navigate by faith, troubled hearts and minds. We've got this, because God's got us. May we be courageous to see our heart lies and by faith, overpower them by standing on the promises of God. Hearts are a power center. Minds are a power center. Best to have God in control of such powers, or we can misuse it greatly. God's word teaches us what the heart and mind are all about. We've got alot to learn from the greatest Teacher ever, the Living Word, Jesus.

Old Testament Heart Meanings: (Strong's Concordance and Vines Dictionary page 174)
The word heart in Hebrew is "leb"meaning "heart; mind; midst." "leb" and its synonym "lebab," often means the inner person, with a focus on the psychological aspects of the mind and heart, which also includes decision making ability.
Further,
The word heart is regarded as the seat of emotions of fear and sorrow, and also the seat of moral character.  The heart is the fountain of man's deeds. A pure heart can stand in God's presence. God controls the heart. Because of his natural heart, man's only hope is in the promise of God, it can be cleaned, Psalm 51:10, the heart can be tested, Psalm 86:11 and year a man cannot understand his own heart as Jeremiah 17:9; man cannot understand his own heart. And so on.
Basically,
Our hearts lie to us and yet can be cleansed by God and become His throne.  How? By faith, by grace and by abiding in Christ alone.

New Testament Heart Meanings:
The Greek word for heart is "kardia" meaning the chief organ of the physical life. By an easy transition the word came to stand for man's entire mental and moral activity, both the rational and the emotional elements.  In other words, the heart is used figuratively for the hidden springs of the personal life. The Bible describes human depravity as IN the heart, because SIN is a principle which has its seat IN the center of man's inward life, and then defiles the whole circuit of his action.  On the other hand, Scripture regards the heart as the sphere of Divine influence, Rom 2:15, Acts 15:9. The heart, as lying deep within, contains 'the hidden man', 1 Peter 3:4, the real man. it represents the true character but conceals it.

So here we have the Hebrew and Greek of it. In my view, the most important heart for us to always consider is God's heart. The most important heart for us to follow is God's heart.  The most loving, powerful, unconditional and impartial heart is God's heart. The most forgiving heart is God's heart.

We all know heartlessness, and have sometimes been heartless, prayerless and faithless. We've proven heartlessness by some of our selfish ways, putting ourselves first instead of God; or where we've instantly spoken harsh opinions of public people we've never even met, and times we've fed our fears instead of splashing into the OBEDIENCE, unwavering faith, commands.

Bottom line: put all our Trust in God's heart, not our own hearts. We decide with our minds to trust. To trust in anything or anyone other than God is just plain foolish. I want to limit my foolishness while I walk on earth. Am so thankful for God's unconditional forgiving heart and the heart and mind connections. May we avoid disconnects and deceiving heart notions common to us all.

God, Creator of our hearts, Cleanser of our hearts and King of our hearts we ask You to form our prayer. Cause us to avoid praying amiss. Thank You for the heart/mind connection. May we be allowed to avoid disconnects. We praise You that we can abide in Your heart and touch Your mind. That You are so very accessible and revealing. We thank You for cleansing our hearts. We thank You for sitting on the throne of our hearts. We thank You for elevating our hearts as we ask You to make our hearts like Yours, like Jesus' heart and that done, by the loving POWER of the Holy Spirit Himself.
We are so sorry for overlooking Your heart so often, slipping out of "abidement in You and into the apartment of sin" by putting our own desires ahead of Your higher and better desires for us. Sin can be so subtle to us, yet surely blaring to You and Your holiness. So sorry Father. Help us recognize the deceiving ways our hearts can lie to us sooner and sooner. That we recognize deception in all its forms, be it pride, fear or worry, by decided and disciplined obedience to put You first in all things. Thanks also Father, for Your continual patience. Would You continue to open the eyes of our hearts, increase our ability to ask Your advice and hear Your voice.  Please make us fit to display the unseen reality of Your heart, Your presence and Your eternal promises which fail not to a sad, unsaved, hate-filled and dark world of wandering people. We ask peace for Israel, and all these things in the matchless name of Jesus. Amen.