Burning Hearts

Text: Luke 24:32
They said to each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?’ (NRSV)

Has God ever spoken to your heart?  There have been times when I have read some piece of Scripture and images of what God is calling me to do simply burn within me.  The problem comes in the execution of the vision.

The world is a distracting place and can move our eyes off what God is saying to us.  In fact, the disciples who are walking down the road to Emmaus and have just spoken to Jesus, started by talking about how disappointed they were that the “vision” they had from God did not come true; “He asked them, ‘What things?’ They replied, ‘The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him.  But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place.’” (Luke 24:19-21 NRSV)

They had a vison from God that Jesus was the one to redeem Israel but, the events of the world put out the fire in their hearts until Jesus spoke to them again.  When you feel that fire in your heart from God, don’t let the world distract you from the decisions you must make to respond to the Word of God in your life.  No matter what you see going on around you, if this is truly from God, God will give you what you need to fulfil the vision which he has given you.  The only way that it can fail, is if you fail to follow through.

If you feel the fire going out, go back to God in prayer and Scripture reading.  Let Jesus meet you again on the road to Emmaus and open your mind to what God has placed in your heart.  Jesus can and will dispel the darkness that would seek to quench the Holy Spirit fire for Jesus is the light of the world and no amount of darkness will ever overcome the light (see John 1).

Pray with me:

God, speak into my heart and give me a vision for what you want me to do to partner with you in the redemption of this world.  Allow the fire to burn within my heart as I move into the darkness of the world in which you have called me to be your light.  Do not let me place my light under a basket but, on a lamp stand for all to see.  AMEN.

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