Heart Obesity

You have lived luxuriously on the land and have indulged yourselves. You have fattened your hearts for the day of slaughter (James 5:5 HCSB)

What we see in this verse is that our hearts can actually 'gain weight'. Luxury and self-indulgence makes our souls 'fat' for the day of slaughter. What does this mean? Through those things our souls become lifted up and prideful. Our hearts become puffed up in complacence and self-flattery, as luxurious and self-indulgent lifestyle deceives us into thinking that God is actually 'blessing' us by our prosperity and pleasures.

But we forget that farmers naturally feed their pigs and cattle the most right before the moment of their slaughter. Same it is with how God deals with those who live for luxury and pleasure. God makes the "rich" (as is the context in chapter 5:1-6) to 'think' that they are being divinely blessed, but only to destroy them with a stunning surprise on the Day of Judgment - like how Jesus Christ in His wisdom allows the Antichrist to worship himself and to have his 15 minutes of fame before he immediately proceeds to "destroy him with the breath of His mouth and will bring him to nothing with the brightness of His coming" (2 Thessalonians 2:8 HCSB). How frightening!

Even so, we must be afraid of this 'heart-obesity'. When we think everything in life is going right in luxury and self-indulgence, we must not dupe ourselves into thinking that it is the sign of God's positive favour, but instead have the wisdom to interpret it as God's alarm bells sounding. We must take heed when 'all is well', materially speaking! Rather, we must make our hearts slim in humility. Instead of luxury and self-indulgence we must give our luxury away for the sake of others and crucify our indulgence for the sake of painful service for others.

So then, let us 'exercise' our hearts! Let us run the race, holding on to this precious rule of the cross: "the one who loves his life will lose it, and the one who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life" (John 12:25 HCSB)