A TENDER HEART

"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."

Ezekiel 36:25
King James Version

Before I was saved, I wasn't a nice person. I hated everybody and I was hateful to people. The most wonderful day of my life was when I invited Jesus into my heart on August 14, 1980 to be my personal Saviour, He removed my cold and hardened heart and gave me a new heart, a tender heart filled with compassion and understanding.

Do I always love everyone unconditionally as Jesus has commanded us to love everyone? No, I don't because there are times when I get angry when someone hurts me and I have to ask God to help me keep my big mouth shut. You might think we have a right to get angry and upset when someone hurts us.

No, we don't have a right to get angry and upset. The only person who has the right to get angry and upset is our precious Saviour. When Jesus died for your sins and my sins on the cross, He could have came down from the cross but He stayed on the cross because He loves us. He not only stayed on that cross of horror and excrutiating pain, He asked God to forgive us.

What kind of love is this that Jesus would ask God to forgive us after He had been beaten beyond recognition, spat on, cursed, abused and left alone to die for something He didn't do? It is an amazing and unconditional love that comes from the heart of our Saviour. O how Jesus loves you. Nobody loves you like Jesus loves you and nobody ever will.

Ray Overholt wrote the beautiful and inspiring hymn "Ten Thousand Angels". "They bound the hands of Jesus in the garden where he prayed They led him through the street in shame They spat upon the Saviour so pure and free from sin They said crucify him he's to blame He could have called ten thousand angels to destroy the world and set him free He could have called ten thousand angels but he died alone for you and me."

Jesus died for our sins when He had never done anything wrong. How can you and I do less than give Him our heart and our time and serve Him after all that He has done for us? What a Saviour! What a Friend, this Jesus of Nazareth! Please join me in praising the One Who loves you so much He died for you.

Joanne Lowe
January 2, 2020