By Jenni Ingram
Member, First Baptist Church, Gantt
Have you ever heard the phrase “I have Jesus in my heart”? I know I have and I have said it. Do you ever marvel at all God has created and how He created it — even you? Have you ever considered your heart? Do you find it odd that it is in the center of your chest and everything functions because of it? Even your brain can’t function without the lifeblood from the heart.
Just as our body needs the lifeblood from the center of our being, our soul needs the lifeblood from the heart of Jesus. When I was little, I thought of the heart as the thing you could see drawn on the older girls’ notebooks. Then my daddy had a heart attack, and I got to see pictures of a real heart. This made the concept of having Jesus in there really confusing. How did He get in there? How did He get out to be with us in church?
I guess this is really where my questioning of spiritual things began — I was 10. Now 37 years later, I am still questioning, but so many things have been made clear to me. I no longer believe that Jesus is born every year at Christmas, nor is He crucified over and over again during Passion Week. Just as I have matured, so has my faith and my relationship with the Father.
Being a new believer is not a handicap, it’s an adventure. Just as we all have to mature, so does our relationship. As it matures, Jesus grows in our hearts until we are perfect replicas of Him, living in His presence. This is my prayer for every one of us. May God richly bless you.
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