May 23, 2011…I apply for the World Race…my heart begins to beat
June 2, 2011…I am accepted onto the World Race…my heart begins to beat faster
August, 2011…I meet my first deadline…peace. God is faithful…beating, beating, beating
October 2011…Training camp…reality. It’s impossible to stop this beating now.
November 21, 2011…7 weeks until I leave for 11 months.
I THINK MY HEART IS GOING TO EXPLODE!
I’m kind of obsessed with heartbeats right now. I think it’s because they’re what lets us know we are still alive. If our hearts are not beating, we are dead. Knowing that one little thump, thump is the signal to let us know that we are still here. Still living. Still breathing. I’ve had a heartbeat from the time I was born. We all have. They are so simple, yet so amazing.
My heart has held so much….
anger, love, fear, joy, brokenness, healing, anxiety, peace, disappointment, confidence.
And I know that my heart has not held as much junk as some others, but that is the cool thing about God. He is good with heartbeats. I mean, He did create them.
Lately, as I have been thinking about my anatomical heartbeat, my mind has been drawn to think about my spiritual heartbeat. This is a new heartbeat, a different heartbeat. A better, more powerful heartbeat. This is a heartbeat of joy, love, and compassion (at least mine is at the moment). This heartbeat will never die. Why? Because when I was given this new heartbeat, I was given the hope of eternal life with the one who gave me this new heartbeat. Want to know the greatest thing of all? You can have a new heartbeat too!
Yep!
A new heartbeat!
This is what God says about our hearts:
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your might.”
Deuteronomy 6:5
“…For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
1 Samuel 15:17
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? I the Lord search the heart and test the mind to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”
Jeremiah 17:9-10
“Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart the God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”
Romans 10:9-10
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
2 Corinthians 5:17
(Since we are new creations, we are given new heartbeats!)
Has your heart ever pounded? I’m not talking about normal beating. I’m talking about POUNDING. The kind where you think everyone around you can hear it?? I want my new heartbeat to pound. I WANT others to hear this pounding. I want them to be drawn to this pounding, wondering why they can hear mine, but I can’t hear theirs. So I can tell them about the One that has given me this new pounding, this new heartbeat. So they can know that THEY can have it too.
Trusting in our own hearts will get us nowhere. By trusting in Christ, He will transform us into new creations with new heartbeats! Heartbeats that look a lot more like His. How cool is that?!? I have this heartbeat of love, joy, and compassion because HE is the one who gave me that heartbeat. I wouldn’t trade this new heartbeat in for anything.
Nope…nothing.
I want my heart to explode because when my heartbeat is lined up with His, only good things can come out of that.
