Opening Your Heart

A Heart to See
Our heart. It's where we truly meet with and relate to God. In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul prays that “the eyes of our heart would be enlightened” (Eph. 1:15–18). When we see with the eyes of our heart we see not only what He does, but more importantly we see who He is. It is an invitation to intimacy, a call to encounter His character, His love, and His presence.
When the eyes of our heart are open, we will discover our true identity as sons and daughters. It’s not an intellectual exercise, but a revelation that changes everything. The gift the Father gives us (the Spirit of wisdom and revelation) enables us to know him personally.
Our Heart is Central
The Bible consistently emphasises the heart as the central place of our relationship with God. Paul writes that “God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 5:5). Salvation itself comes as we “believe with the heart” (Rom. 10:10). Love is not an abstract idea - it is a divine reality given to us by the Spirit.
The Christian life, therefore, is not about striving to love God, but it’s learning to receive His love. Like children, who are natural “love sponges”, we are called to respond to what has already been given. However, the reality is that many of us live with closed or wounded hearts. Out of fear or pain, we shut parts of ourselves away, locking certain “rooms” in order to avoid more hurt. This self-protection, however, limits our capacity to receive the fullness of God’s love.
The Holy Spirit is never a bully; He does not force His way into our hearts. Instead, He gently invites us to open what has been closed. Jesus reminds us in Luke 6:45 that whatever fills our heart will eventually flow out of us. If our hearts are filled with love, we will overflow with goodness. If our hearts are closed, bitter, or hardened, then our life will be restricted.
The Danger of a Hardened Heart
Paul warns us in Ephesians 4:17–19 that hardened hearts lead to futility of thinking, darkened understanding, and separation from the life of God. When the heart loses sensitivity, life collapses into emptiness, sensuality, and impurity. In contrast, Jesus offers living water to quench the deepest thirsts of our heart (John 4:13–14), an inner wellspring of eternal life.
A Heart to Protect
Because the heart is central, it must be guarded. In the wilderness, Satan targeted Jesus’ heart and identity: “If you are the Son of God…” (Matt. 4:3). The enemy still attacks our heart today, seeking to undermine our sonship and our relationship with the Father. Scripture acknowledges that the heart can be deceitful (Jer. 17:9), hard like stone (Ezek. 11:19), or defiled (Matt. 12:34). Yet the good news is that God promises transformation. He gives us a new heart and a new spirit.
David, who is described as a man after God’s own heart, understood this deeply. His prayers - “Create in me a clean heart” (Ps. 51:10) and “Give me an undivided heart” (Ps. 86:11) - show his desire for wholeness. Despite rejection, betrayal, and hardship, David kept his heart open toward God and others. His example contrasts with the story of the lost sons (Luke 15), where both sons lived with closed hearts toward their father. Their lack of openness cut them off from relationship and love.
Closing our hearts may feel like protection, but in reality it isolates us from both people and God. One of the most significant areas where our hearts are closed is towards our earthly parents. Unless we are healed, this wound can hinder our ability to fully receive love from our Heavenly Father. The restoration of sonship, towards our parents and towards God, is crucial to us living with an open heart.
The Wounded and Broken Heart
Life inevitably brings pain: grief, disappointment, betrayal, broken trust, and unmet expectations. These experiences can leave us with a broken heart which manifests in emotional or even physical pain. A broken heart shakes our very identity and often drives us to ask “Why?” Yet Scripture reminds us that God binds up the brokenhearted (Isa. 61:1; Ps. 147:3) and that He is near to those who are crushed in spirit (Ps. 34:18).
The better question to ask is not “Why?” but “How?” How can the Father use this pain for good? How can healing and restoration come? When we bring our brokenness honestly before Him instead of burying it, He meets us with compassion and begins the work of healing and making us whole.
An Open Heart
Opening the heart is an act of faith. Jeremiah 29:11–13 assures us that God has good plans for our future, and that when we seek Him with all our heart, we will find Him. To live with an open heart is to trust the Father’s perfect love, even when we feel vulnerable.
Proverbs 4:23 exhorts us to guard our heart because it is the source of life itself. Guarding our heart is not the same as closing it. A closed heart traps pain inside and keeps love out. A guarded heart, by contrast, protects what is good and nurtures the flow of life and love.
To open our heart may require us to forgive those who have hurt us. To do this we need to feel safe. We find that place of safety as we continually receive love and begin to depend on our Father. The Father’s love is not a patch we put on an old garment, it’s a completely new garment and way to live (Luke 5:36–39). We are to be clothed in love (Col. 3:12–14) and expanded like new wineskins to contain more of His love.
When our hearts are truly touched, everything changes. Job declared, “My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you” (Job 42:5). This shift from knowing about God to knowing Him personally will change everything. An open heart becomes the vessel through which His love flows freely, not only to us but through us to the world.
Conclusion
The journey of faith is a journey of the heart, everything flows from this innermost place. The Father does not ask us to initiate love but to receive it. As we open our hearts to Him, even in vulnerability, we become containers of His unconditional love. As His love fills us, it changes how we see ourselves and others, but importantly we begin to know that God truly is a Father to us.
Above all else, then, let us watch over our heart. For it is, as Proverbs says, the source of life.