Additional Scriptures About the
Heart, Kidneys, & Bowels
Heart
Genesis 8:21—"And Jehovah smelled the satisfying fragrance; and Jehovah said in His heart, I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; nor will I ever again smite everything living as I have done." God's promise to never flood the earth again wasn't just to man; it was to the nexus of who He was, is, and shall be. God's heart refers to how He functions from his center, or core, but God isn't reducible to that way of functioning.
Psalm 14:1—"The fool hath said in his heart 'There is no God.' They are corrupt; they commit abominable deeds. There is none who does good." A fool's heart refers to how he functions from his center, or core, but the fool isn't reducible to that way of functioning.
Lamentations 3:31–38 (v. 33)—"For the Lord will not cast off forever. But even if He causes grief, He will have compassion according to the multitude of His lovingkindness. For He does not afflict from His heart or grieve the children of men." God doesn't afflict from His heart. He does it willingly (contrary to most English translations), but He does so desiring us to draw near to Him. God's heart—the nexus of His identity, desires, and actions—yearns for our fellowship. He yearns for my fellowship… for your fellowship. And He's willing to afflict us to get it.
Kidneys
Jeremiah 12:1–2: "you are righteous, O Jehovah, when I plead my cause with You. Yet I will speak with you of Your judgments: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are all those who deal treacherously at ease? You have planted them; they have also taken root. They go on and bring forth fruit. You are near, in their mouth, but far from their kidneys." Those whose way is evil may speak about God. They may even credit Him for their success. He may be on their lips. They may taste of Him and know His sweetness. But they don't take in the water of life; God never reaches their kidneys. He never purifies them of their evil. This theme is repeated in Hebrews 6:4, which states that it is impossible for those who have believed into Christ to renew unto God anyone who has tasted Him. Anyone who has tasted know God's sweetness. There's nothing more sweet that those who have believed can offer. What's the old expression? You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. The experience of surrender, in which those who believe not only taste Christ, but drink Him as living water until He refreshes the kidneys, is rich, but it's inexplainable to those who believe they have experienced everything in tasting. Do you want more than mere tasting, reader?
Psalm 16:7—"I will bless Jehovah, who counsels me. Indeed, my kidneys instruct me in the night seasons." Our kidneys use water to suck out impurities from our bodies. As we're saturated with God, being washed by the water of the Word during the day, God's Word can work to purify us during our sleep… and during our the dark seasons of our lives.
Proverbs 23:16—A father speaks to his son, as God's Spirit speaks to us: "My kidneys will rejoice when your lips speak the right things." A father rejoices in life and godliness as his children walks in wisdom. (See also II Peter 1:3.)
Psalm 7:9—"Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous man! For the righteous God weighs the heart and kidneys." Without a core of our identity, desires, and action, we don't operate; without renewing and cleansing, we don't operate, either.
Bowels
Jeremiah 31:20—"My bowels are troubled for him." God's saying this because Ephraim walked away from Him. God's held Ephraim in His bowels, and Ephraim's mixed ways were hurting God. Do we get it? Our sin hurts God—the sin of those whom God loves impacts God!
I John 3:17—"But whoever has the lifelihood of the world and sees that his brother has need and shuts up his bowels, how does the love of God abide in him?" This verse speaks of the man who has livelihood of the world—the plusses and minuses that come with material wealth—and who isn't willing to pass on the good of that mix—the nutrients that the bowels extract—to a brother in need. Therefore, this selfish brother's own bowels become impacted; he becomes poisoned by the very thing he's holding onto so tightly. Quite a powerful physical metaphor, isn't it?
We are in Christ and Christ is in us.
John 6:53–55—"Jesus therefore said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you: unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life within yourselves." Christ is daily sustenance for those who have believed into Him. Spiritually, metaphorically, we eat Christ, our food. On a bodily level, as contemporary nutritionists would tell us, "You become what you eat." Likewise, we become constituted as Christ by eating Christ.
Philippians 1:8—Paul writes, "For God is my witness how I long after you all in the bowels of Christ." Paul was being broken, with those who had believed, and conformed to Christ, being built up into the body of Christ, the church. His brokenness, and our brokenness today, results in the glorification of Christ. Are you willing to be broken—to be spiritually chewed and digested by God—so you can be built up into Christ's glory?
Philemon 1:20—Paul writes, "Yes, brother, may I have profit from you in the Lord. Refresh my bowels in Christ." As Christ's body, believers are broken together, and we eat and drink Christ together. We nourish one another unlike the world ever can its own. We aren't the same at the outset as when God has worked with our brokenness, just as the nutrients we work with from our food doesn't look the same as the food we ingested. Let's nourish one another in the Lord and get rid of the worldy excrement in our lives, which we irrationally hold onto so tightly.