Ephesians 3:16-19 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Proverbs 23:26 My son, give me your heart and let your eyes delight in my ways.
Philippians 4:7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
As a family nurse practitioner, I listen to a lot of hearts every day in the clinic. It doesn’t matter to me if the person is there with a complaint of a sprained finger or a simple case of sniffles, I am going to put a stethoscope to the chest. I’ve caught some abnormal rhythms in the past and diagnosed new murmurs. The heart has always fascinated me. Early on in my career, it was my favorite organ to study. I loved teaching the pathophysiology of the heart and teaching others to read EKGs and cardiac rhythm strips. I love the design: electrical impulses and muscular contraction working together to produce a regular rhythm and peak cardiac output. God really put a lot of thought into that design.
About 10 years ago, a little four year old boy was sitting on my exam table. He looked a little frightened, but he soon made my heart so very happy. I placed my stethoscope on his chest, and I listened as I have done thousands of times before, but this time was different. When I removed my stethoscope, he looked at me with those big brown eyes and asked, “Do you hear Jesus in there?” Y’all, he stopped me in my tracks. No one had ever asked me that before in all my years of practice, but I knew the answer to his question was a definite yes. I said, “Well yes, as a matter of fact, I do.” He began grinning from ear to ear, and I couldn’t help but smile the rest of the day as well. So today, I ask you my friends, is Jesus in your heart?
There are many days in this crazy, chaotic life that we feel overwhelmed and tired at the end of the day. We may even feel alone, and sometimes we wonder if Jesus is there. As a Christian and child of God, we have asked Jesus into our hearts to be the ruler and king of our hearts, but sometimes we feel empty, and we have to ask, “Jesus are you still there?” I’ve heard the answer loud and clear oh so many times. Jesus never leaves us, but sometimes we keep him out. Jesus wants to be the Lord of our hearts…our whole hearts, not just little rooms that we decide to let Him in, However, we tend to close the doors on the places that we don’t won’t Jesus to see. We put “Do Not Enter” signs on certain rooms that we think we can handle ourselves. Oh, you know those rooms: rooms of hurt, sorrow, confusion, anger, bitterness, or betrayal, or perhaps it’s that one little bitty sin problem that we just can’t let go of. We tend to close those doors up, but in reality those things are separating us from a relationship with Jesus. Keeping those doors closed keeps Jesus at a distance. It is not He that is distanced from us. We are the ones who are locking the doors and keeping Him out.
Jesus wants to be the Lord of our whole heart, not just the parts that we want to let Him control. Jesus wants to go into those rooms of hurt and sorrow and fill them with His love and comfort. He wants to go into that ugly room of past transgressions, and forgive our sins and wipe the slate clean. He wants to take away the hurt, the bitterness, and the anger. He wants to help us overcome that little bitty sin problem and the great big ones too. He truly wants to be the Lord of our whole being. Why do we keep closing and locking those doors?
The Holy Spirit of Jesus can and will dwell in your hearts if you will only allow Him to reside there. Then you will be rooted and established in love and have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness. Even a four year old knows that Jesus needs to fill our hearts!
Inspirations from the Funny Farm 