Hebrew Word Study – You Are In My Heart – Davalavi ‘Anathun  דבלבי אנתון   Daleth Beth Lamed Beth Yod    Aleph Nun Taw Vav Nun

Philippians 1:7-8: “Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace.” (8) For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ.

Someone in our All Access subscription site asked about this verse and the words: “I have you in my heart.”  Just so you know I work a full-time job, I am writing books and doing a daily blog as well as teaching classes online.  So, I apologize if I don’t get around to answering your questions as there are not enough hours in the day to accomplish everything I need to accomplish. However, if you are a member of our All Access subscription site, answering your questions personally is a high priority.  So, if you want to be sure your question gets an answer, join our All Access. There is a place on the All-Access site where you can ask your question.

So, what about Paul’s words “I have you in my heart.”  Is this just a poetic expression to show he cares about these people?  There is no doubt when you read the Book of Philippians Paul shows great affection for these people. Philippi was a Roman colony and an important commercial city. It was also the place where Mark Anthony and Cassius were defeated by Octavius in 67 AD.  Paul took his second missionary journey to Philippi about fifteen years before this fateful battle where he established a church.  The church was well organized with pastors and deacons and something the Aramaic called kasheesheh. The King James Version renders this as bishops but bishops did not exist in those days. Probably the best rendering would be elders.  Anyways, the Apostle Paul was very pleased with the growth and development of this church and expressed this in his letter.  This church was very dear to his heart as he was its founder.  

In verse eight Paul says that he longs after them in the bowels of Jesus Christ. The word bowels in Aramaic is brahmaw.  Which literally means your bowels or intestines. It is not unusual for Semitic writers to refer to the heart, liver, bowels, and/or kidneys as the center of love and emotions. Even today in the Western world we might ask someone what is on their hearts when we really mean mind but if we are searching for something much deeper, the word heart will express a depth that is more than just something on your mind. 

So, for Paul to say that the believers in Phillipi are in his heart he is expressing a deep love. He just does not love these people but he cherishes them.  In the Aramaic he says they are sum, that is established in his heart.  The word sum in Aramaic is used for the pin that hitches a wagon to the pole connecting it to the team of horses. In other words, when he is saying that he has the people in his heart, he is saying that they are motivating power that pulls him along in his ministry. His love is so deep that he is willing to suffering chains or bonds/imprisonment for their sake, just as Jesus loved them to be willing to suffer torment for them. They are attached to his heart and pulling on his heartstrings so to speak.

Paul has a wonderful way of putting us on guilt trips. In our silent moments alone as we ponder these things many of us, myself included, cannot honestly say we have this kind of love for God’s people. But, yet, there are moments when we do. For you see Paul was a man who searched God’s heart and entered God’s heart. When he entered God’s heart, he felt the love God had for His people and he felt the same love as it flowed from God’s heart to his.  Just a few short years prior to this he was killing these people and now he loved them so much he would be willing to die for them.  That can only come from God. 

There is a natural love we have for others, but then there is that special love, that love we have for brothers and sisters in Christ that comes only from God.  What did Jesus mean in John 13:35: “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” The word for love is simply chav, not racham. Regular ordinary human love.  I had a Jehovah’s Witness point this verse out to me as proof that they were the one true church because they loved each other.  I was thinking; “Well, we Baptists get together and love each other.”  So, what is the big deal?  I mean veterans get together and love each other, classmates get together and love each other. Politicians get together and love each other.  Heck, even Democrats get together and love each other for crying out loud.  What is so special?  The specialness is that Jesus is saying the love between believers is ordinary love with an extra component. Their hearts are joined to the heart of God and the love between believers is infused with the love of God to make it a special supernatural bond. 

We feel this every time we enter God’s heart.  After 15 years of searching for God’s heart, I have learned that all believers have open access to God’s heart. They are entering God’s heart every day, they just don’t know it.  The key is to recognize when you enter God’s heart and to act upon it. 

The other day for some unexplained reason the believers in Afghanistan weighed heavily on me. I do not know one person in Afghanistan, nor anyone who knows anyone in Afghanistan let alone another believer. Yet, after years of searching for God’s heart, I knew and recognized God was inviting me into His heart. I pulled over to the side of the road in my disability bus which was thankfully empty and I began to weep, deep heavy sobs as I cried out to God: “Jesus, oh Jesus come and fill your lambs.”  

How could I love a believer in Afghanistan as I never even met one, I don’t know their language, their culture but God does, He knows them and when I entered God’s heart I met them through God’s heart, and my heart was broken as I touched God’s, broken heart. 

Don’t let the enemy put you on a guilt trip because you feel you don’t love the way you should. God will invite you into His heart so you can feel his love for others and when you feel His love you will feel that same for love his children.  The first thing you need to do, however, is to recognize when God is inviting you into His heart and then be prepared for an emotional journey filled with heartfelt prayers. 

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