Before I came to the Lord, little did I know that while my heart was perfectly functioning physically, it was the seat of all of my internal problems, the reason I was always restless, and in desperate need of a transplant in order to fix its massive shortcomings. But praise God when I invited Jesus into my heart, He performed radical surgery not on my physical heart but on my spiritual heart. As a Christian I now realize the truth behind the wickedness of the unregenerate heart. (Jeremiah 17:9) paints the sad picture of why we need spiritual heart surgery when it states: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it?”
Warren Wiersbe shared a very profound statement about the heart when he stated: “We have little control over the circumstances of life. We can’t control the weather or the economy, and we can’t control what other people say about or do to us. There is only one area where we have control–we can rule the kingdom inside. The heart of every problem is the problem in the heart.”1
Knowing that we have a serious heart problem is critical and the first step in realizing that in reality we can’t, on our own, control, in the words of Wiersbe, “the kingdom inside.” For since we are born dead in our sins and trespasses and spiritually dead, we need a miracle in order to bring back to life this desperately wicked heart.
Thankfully, one day I realized my desperately lost state and cried out to the only physician who could perform such radical heart surgery – Jesus Christ! Once I consented to the surgery, I put my entire faith in His hands and underwent a spiritual heart transplant like nothing I had ever experienced before.
The surgery was performed on October 12, 1981 and on that day I was given a new heart and a new capacity to do something I could never have done before – and that was to control my kingdom inside. Now, almost 43 years later, I realize more than ever, that unless I daily yield control of my life to the leading and guiding of the Holy Spirit I won’t be able to control my kingdom inside. For you see while I have a new heart and a new nature, the old heart and old nature can be resurrected on occasion and cause me to sacrifice the joy and peace that my new heart now allows me to experience when it is walking in step with Jesus.
Thankfully, when I do sin, and fall out of step with Jesus, I quickly confess and repent of my sin, and can enter back into the sweet joy that my new heart is made to experience in Christ. I am just so grateful to the Lord for saving me and giving me a new spiritual heart that will never stop beating and is designed to eternally experience the joy of the Lord!
1Quote by Warren W. Wiersbe: “We have little control over the circumstances o…” (goodreads.com)