A NEW HEART

“Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.  A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.  And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.”

Ezekiel 36:25-27 KJV

For over forty years, I was in the darkness of a devastating crippling depression.  I hated everyone and didn’t trust anybody and had no desire to live.  I even tried to commit suicide and when that failed, I thought that I couldn’t do anything right and didn’t deserve to live.

One day as I was lying under a bed in a mental hospital, Jesus put His arms of love around me and lifted me up from under that bed.  He said “I love you, Joanne.  It’s safe for you to come out from under this bed.  I won’t let anyone hurt you again”.  That was the first time anyone had said to me “I love you, Joanne.”

I can’t put into words the happiness and joy I felt when Jesus told me He loves me.  Jesus took the stony heart out of my flesh and gave me an heart of flesh.  He took away the hatred, the bitterness and the resentment that I had in my heart and gave me a new heart, a heart of love and compassion for others. 

This verse describes how I feel now.  “Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased” (Psalm 4:8).  O how I love Jesus!!  He is the breath I take, the reason I get out of bed and the joy of my heart.  How I long for the day when I will see Him face to face.

Joanne Lowe

June 14, 2015