Does Your Heart Still Burn For God?

Does Your Heart Still Burn for God?

                          “And they said to one another, "Did not our heart burn within us                                    while He talked with us on the road?”     Luke 24:32

For some time I have felt there was something missing in my relationship with the Lord.  I have really sat and contemplated what it could be.  I share the Lord with anyone I can through talking to people, writing the Bible teachings I put on line every week and try to live how the Bible shows me.  I’m certainly far from perfect and fail often, but ask the Lord’s forgiveness and go on with life.  I know others have felt the same way. So what is it that’s missing? 

I receive so much literature in the mail and I can’t possibly read it all so occasionally I must sort it out.  The other day I was going through it and then tossing when I saw these words: (How, then, do we know if our love for Christ is draining away?) I really felt I should read this article by Dr. David Jeremiah.  He was writing about the words Jesus had for the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2:4, “Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” 

I began to think back to 1979 when I first accepted Jesus and turned my life over to him.  That day I became a new person and when my husband came home from work that day, I met him at the door with a Bible in both hands.  We sat down at the kitchen table and I shared what happened to me.  I was so filled with Jesus that I couldn’t contain it so I let him have it with both barrels.  For the first time in my life I could open a Bible and understand what it said.  I sat down at my piano and played the old hymns I had learned as a child and understood what the words meant.

Within a couple of weeks my husband asked the Lord to give him what He gave me and he was born again.  We prayed over everything and every decision we made.  I developed such a deep hunger for the Word of God that I devoured the entire Bible and began again.  I still love to read and study the Bible as much as then.  We couldn’t wait to tell everyone we knew about this wonderful thing that happened to us.

If we were in a restaurant, we just waited for someone to come in that we knew and would call them over to our table to share Jesus with them. It seemed as though we offended some of them, but nothing could contain our zeal.  We started a prayer group and soon had 30-40 join us every week.  We eventually joined a good Bible believing, spirit-filled church.  Our lives continued to grow in the Lord as we soon were asked to speak to groups of people through-out several states.  Later, we were asked to do a radio program and a weekly TV show which we did for about 2 or 3 years. We both still worked full time and after a few years found it to be too much to handle.  I still did a daily radio broadcast for some years.

Also during this time my husband was taking classes to become a minister.  Because of my musical background I took the position of Minister of Music at our church which required a lot of time with leading a choir and working with musical productions.

A day didn’t go by that I didn’t pray for my children.  I had a little bulletin board with each of their names written along with the spouses of those who were married. As time went on, one by one they asked Jesus into their hearts and serve God to this day.

This was a lot to say about my life since I got saved, but although I have steadfastly served the Lord all these years, something happened; I am missing something.  Has my love for the Lord diminished?  I still love God and always will, but is it at the depth it was?  I want my heart to burn within me; I want to feel such zeal that I have to tell everyone I meet about Jesus. 

Compare your relationship with Jesus to a marriage.  If you’ve been married a few years, does your heart do a flip when he or she walks into a room?  Does he make you feel giddy when they kiss you or put their arms around you?  Probably not because you have grown into a deeper love and security for each other, but you still love them. 

In the New Testament it tells the story of two men making their way to Emmaus when a stranger joined them.  They were talking of Jesus being crucified in Jerusalem and all that had happened.  They did not know that the stranger who was now walking with them was Jesus.  When they reached Emmaus they ask him to eat with them and he shared so much with them.  Suddenly their eyes were open and they realized their companion was Jesus himself.  Then he disappeared and they said to each other, “Was not our hearts burning within us as he talked?”

Do you look up at the sky and feel excited about his return?  Do you read the Bible and something strikes you that this scripture was written just for you?

The best thing to do is to think back on what the Lord has done for you. Oh, my.  There are so many things I can praise him for; all the times he has saved me from death, illness, troubled times, family hardships and many more.  He has saved my family and all that follows after them.  If I praise him for all of these things, I find the more I praise him, the more I love him.  At first I imagine a tiny spark; then a small flame and then I know my heart is burning within me. 

When Jesus returns, I don’t want to be lacking, or my first love to be diminished. Let my daily prayer be, “Let my heart burn within me.”  May this also be your prayer that the love of God kindle that flame within you!