How’s Your Soul? A Puritan EKG for the Heart.

At the conclusion of The Vanity of Thoughts, Thomas Goodwin asks the reader a soul-stirring question: “What do you think about when your heart is free, in your spare time, in the morning, or when you lie awake at night?” He says our answer to this question will reveal a high-definition glimpse of what you’re worshipping. In other words, the inclination of our thoughts is a litmus test for the affections of our heart, for the motion of these thoughts bring the heart and object together; “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matt. 6:21) One of Goodwin’s most convicting lines is that “Thoughts hold up the images of the gods they create, which the heart then bows down to worship.”

George Swinnock goes one step deeper when he writes that the “essence of religion” all comes down to the “choice of your portion.” He concludes that our happiness “depends entirely” upon looking to God as our “utmost end and chiefest good.” If we go wrong here; we are lost forever.

While most Christians would intellectually agree with this conclusion, Swinnock follows up with three questions to ask our souls. I like to think of these questions as a spiritual EKG for the heart. They are a far cry from the modern superficial tests that sound something like: “How’s your bible reading or quiet time? Are you going to church? or How’s your prayer life?”

If you care about the health of your soul, I trust you will be challenged by the following questions:

In What Channel Does the Stream of Your Desires Run?

Put simply, what direction do the “winds of your soul” point toward? God or the world? Or as Swinnock summarizes; “you may judge the state of your soul by your desires. If you chiefly desire the trash of the world, then your spiritual state is not right.” The latter half of Isaiah 26:8 beautifully describes the heart of the redeemed; “The desire of our soul is for Your name and for the remembrance of You,” while the psalmist echoes in Psalm 73:25-26, “There is none upon earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart fail; But God is the strength of my heart.”

When my soul was not well, I chiefly desired the gods of my own making; which were my love for flying airplanes and the advancement of my military career. My spiritual EKG for this first question came back in the form of Amos 2:7, which describes the ungodly as those who “pant after the dust of the earth.” Praise God He changed my heart, starved out my idols, and gave me a thirst for the pure water brooks of Himself (Psalm 42:1).      

At What Feast Do You Sit with Most Delight?

What stirs up your affections? This is something you cannot hide and is readily apparent to those closest to us, particularly our kids. Just take time to notice what the majority of people in your church are spring loaded to talk about immediately following a sermon. Swinnock writes: “If your affections only overflow with joy when the world flows in upon you … then the world is your portion.”

When I was a slave to the world, my failure in this second question was most clearly evidenced on Sundays. I would sit through solid expository Bible teaching at church and walk away with my mind inflated and intelligence excited. But it wasn’t until going home and watching my favorite football team that my affections began to stir; most of the time for the worse (I’m a recovering Chargers fan). My wife saw the difference, my kids saw it, and yet unfortunately I continued to lie by telling myself that God was my delight. In reality, I was far more affectionate about a leather pig crossing a chalk line than delighting in my Creator and Savior!     

What Calling Do You Follow with Greatest Eagerness and Earnestness?

I love this final test. Swinnock correctly points out that the worldly man “hazards his health, life, and soul for that which he counts his portion;” and all with the goal of “hope and happiness.” Hence, he concludes that logically the Christian, “who has the blessed God for his portion, strives, labors, watches, prays, weeps, and thinks no time too much, no pain too great, and no cost too high for the enjoyment of his God.” However, despite the validity of this logic, how many professing Christians can honestly say that this kind of fervor describes their walk with the Lord?

I used to exhaust myself in the advancement of my military career, ultimately leading to an epic burn-out that nearly cost me my life. All during this time, the first things to fall off the iceberg when the tempo picked up were the spiritual means of grace like Bible reading, prayer, and Christian fellowship. Swinnock asks “to what market are you walking so fast?” Vanity fair or the Celestial City? I was not walking but sprinting toward the kingdom of man while all the while deceiving myself that I was doing it for the glory of God. Thanks be to God for saving me from myself!

Swinnock writes that if you passed the above EKG and find that God is your portion, rejoice and stay on target! However, if you failed, as I did years ago, and discover that God is not your portion, repent and turn to Him in faith! Cease striving or warring against God (Psalm 46:10) and cry out that He would break your hardened heart and lead you to the fountain that never fails. The famous cry of George Whitefield is fitting here:

“Come away, my dear brethren, fly, fly, fly for your lives to Jesus Christ; fly to a bleeding God, fly to a throne of grace; and beg of God to break your heart…”

For as Swinnock concludes: “You must make a new choice, or you can never enter into peace.”

How’s your soul today?

Recommended Complementary Reading:

The Fading of the Flesh and the Flourishing of Faithby George Swinnock

Gospel Evidences of Saving Faithby John Owen

Faith Seeking Assuranceby Anthony Burgess