Mind or Heart? God Uses Both

When God invites you into his work, his calling won’t be cold and calculated – and it won’t just be a wild emotional ride. God created you, mind and heart, to work alongside him. So when he calls you to join him - expect his vision to touch both!

I’ve been honed in on God’s calling this year. I recently wrote about how God gave me a reminder of mine. In moments of new vision, I often undervalue my emotional response, thinking my emotions are untrustworthy or need to be stripped of their passion. I jump to strategy pretty quickly, setting aside my anger or tears or the fire that made me want to engage. Maybe you do the opposite and go to people full of emotion without thinking things through, assuming your job is to provide the heat and someone else will come up with the actual plan or solution.

As I read the book of Nehemiah, I was reminded of how God wants to engage all of who we are in our work. Nehemiah was called to restore Israel and rebuild Jerusalem. His calling wasn’t just a mental checklist and a strategic plan. Nor was it purely a heart thing. It was both.

Nehemiah’s Heart and Mind

When God called Nehemiah to return to Israel and rebuild Jerusalem, he was a cupbearer who was close to the Persian King Artaxerxes. He had the chance to ask for his support. The king was halfway into a forty-year reign over an ancient kingdom that stretched, at its height, from the edge of modern-day Ukraine south to Libya and east to Afghanistan and beyond. (You can see a map of the Persian or Achaemenid Empire here.)

This was a big area with many different people, nations, and cultures — all ruled by one king. There was no obvious reason the Israelites should get special preference over everyone else. Yet, God used the impassioned, emotional, and strategic pleas of Nehemiah to set his plan for his people in motion.

When you read Nehemiah 2, you can see the unbridled emotions and also a plan! Verses 1-2 explain the former:

In the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was brought for him, I took the wine and gave it to the king. I had not been sad in his presence before, so the king asked me, ‘Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart.’”

When Nehemiah explained his sadness was because the city of his ancestors was in ruins, the king asked what he wanted — and Nehemiah was ready with a response. He had actually thought about it: he did not just wallow in his emotions. But because of that emotion, Nehemiah went to God in prayer. It says in verse 4, “Then I prayed to the God of heaven,” God moved him with feelings and helped him in prayer to know what to ask the king.

Nehemiah’s genuine heart and engaged mind were both part of the process of bringing Israel back to the promised land. It’s a blueprint for us, too! God wants to see your heart and mind involved when we respond to him and set about the work to which we are called. If one is missing, we need to pause and wonder why.

Jesus’ Heart & Mind

Jesus gives us one of the best examples of this powerful heart-mind combination.

Jesus showed empathy and passion everywhere he turned. Scripture often speaks of his compassion as the compelling force behind his work. In Matthew 8, he stopped on his way to raise a girl from the dead to heal a sick woman who tried to touch his cloak in a desperate chance to find healing. When he saw merchants turning the Temple into a marketplace, he flipped tables. When he saw the crowd around Lazarus’ tomb, he wept.

You don’t have to look far to see Jesus’ mind at work in his brilliant teachings, crafty answers to challenges, and parables that confounded many. Even as a child, he amazed his parents and the Jewish teachers of the law with his questions and answers and his passion for learning in the temple courts. (Luke 2:46-47)

The best example of Jesus’ heart and mind coming together might be just mere hours before his death. In Gethsemane, Jesus told his disciples (Matthew 26), “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” Jesus was overcome with emotion. And from that place, he passionately prayed “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” Even in his despair, Jesus prayed words from the Sermon on the Mount with an eye on his Dad’s bigger strategic plan. “Father,” “your will be done.”

Are You Making Room for Your Heart and Mind?

When God moves you, calls you, or invites you to join his mission on earth, it will include ALL of who you are. The Spirit will connect with you through your heart and your mind, just like when he called Nehemiah in Chapter 1.

Your emotions are not “too much.” And yes, you really do eventually need an actual plan with some bullet points and due dates. Don’t be afraid of either. And don’t leave one out!

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Mind or Heart? God Uses Both

Nehemiah’s Heart and Mind

Jesus’ Heart & Mind

Are You Making Room for Your Heart and Mind?

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