Is Your Heart Burning?
And no, I am not talking about the kind of heart-burn that is caused by what you ate for dinner! That’s acid reflux. 🤣
The kind of burning I’m talking about causes true pleasure in knowing the Lord personally and knowing that He knows you inside and out!
The kind of burning that I’m talking about is the feeling of passion and being alive in the depths of your being. I am speaking of Christian living that is more than going to church once a week and putting up with the person in the seat next to you! Our Father in heaven LONGS for us to live with a heart that is alive and on fire for Him!
Did you know that the Aramaic word for love literally means, to burn with passion? For some this is a new concept, but you can feel the desire stirring up in you to know Him this way and some of you have found yourself burning with passion, now more than ever before, to get closer to the One called Love!
Either way, you’re in good company! This burning heart phenomenon was experienced by Jesus’ downtrodden disciples when Jesus appeared to them in His resurrected body:
Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight. They said to one another, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?’ And they got up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found gathered together the eleven and those who were with them. Luke 24:31-33
Hopelessness and Despair Brings Hope
The disciples on the road to Emmaus were broken and hurt. They didn’t understand why Jesus had died. We can practically hear their thoughts as we read the story in Luke 24. They wonder, We thought Jesus was our Messiah, and now He’s gone—dead. What do we do now? There’s nowhere to go. So, they give up and go back to their old lives as fishermen. But then, there He is—Jesus in His glorified body. Yet, they have no idea who He is. He asks them what is bothering them, and in amazement, as though this stranger lives under a rock, they ask, “Do you not know?”
He continues to talk with the brokenhearted disciples for a while, explaining the importance of the crucifixion; eventually, He disappears. The disciples look at one another and recognize that deep, inner burning in their hearts, and they say, “Oh! It was Him! It was Him!”
How did they know?
Their hearts burned within them. All of a sudden, they experienced the fellowship of the burning hearts. And in that place of intimacy and revelation, even in their brokenness, Jesus came. Jesus showed up in His glorified body, but because of their overwhelming emotions, they didn’t recognize Him. They were focused on earthly things instead of heavenly things. Instead of rebuking them, Jesus came into their brokenness and encountered them in His glorified body, causing their hearts to burn. Suddenly, they began to remember what it was like to be with Him. They knew it had to be Him.
It Had to Be Him!
The disciples knew they had been with Him because of the physical, emotional, and spiritual burning that continued even after He vanished. This burning heart phenomenon also happened to the prophets of old, like David, Moses, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. David’s heart burned with passion for the Lord (Ps. 39:3). He desired one thing and was called a “man after God’s own heart” (Ps. 27:4; 1 Sam. 13:4, Acts 13:22). Moses talked to God face to face and breath to breath (Ex. 33:11, 18; Num. 12:8). Isaiah’s fiery encounter in Isaiah 6 with the coal to his lips transformed him from fearful and timid to bold and fearless (Is. 6:6-13). Jeremiah had fire in his heart and bones that compelled him to be true to his commission, even if it meant death (Jer. 20:9). But to these disciples, this was an awakening to the deep inner witness and recognition of the One with whom they were walking—the Christ.
What To Do With The Burning
Many find themselves feeling like they are of a few with this burning on the inside, not knowing what to do with it. I encourage you to keep on praying, worshipping, and intimately encountering the Lord! Pray about and find a local chuch expression of other burning ones with whom you can fellowship. The Lord will connect you with other burning hearts!