I was looking through G. Campbell Morgan sermons recently and saw one entitled “The Burning of Heart.” I am still having trouble with this flare-up of acid reflux, or heartburn, so the title caught my eye. It reminded me that there is a good kind of burning of heart – when your heart is aflame with love for God. Here is a link to the full sermon if you have time to read it: G. Campbell Morgan – The Burning Of Heart. I hope to be able to write a post with notes about this sermon soon. I don’t have time to do that right now. But there was a really interesting quote from this sermon I want to share with you. Morgan is preaching about The Walk to Emmaus in which 2 disciples were walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus the day of Jesus’ resurrection. They did not realize it was Jesus that had been walking with them and after they realized that it was Jesus, they asked each other, “Was not our heart burning within us, while He spake to us in the way, while He opened to us the scriptures?” (Luke 24:32 KJV)

Morgan begins his sermon by saying, “Burning of heart. That, I take it, is the supreme need of the Church today. We have principles, but we very largely lack passion.” He talks about how the fire in our hearts is burning low. Here is the quote I wanted to share with you. Morgan uses the word “holden” in it. Luke 24:16 in the King James Version says that, “But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.” The NIV instead of using the word “holden” says, “but they were kept from recognizing him.” Here is the quote: Morgan says, “[Jesus] is so near to us, and yet we do not see Him. He is walking with us along the shadowy pathway, but our eyes are holden. There is today an appalling lack of the clear vision of the Christ which makes the step elastic and the spirit buoyant, and the outlook spacious, and the heart burn with fire and fervor and passion.”

This made me think of the 1^st and 3^rd verses of  “Jesus I Am Resting, Resting” by Jean Sophia Pigott – Learning to Live by Faith which say:

1 Jesus, I am resting, resting
in the joy of what Thou art;
I am finding out the greatness
of Thy loving heart.
Thou hast bid me gaze upon Thee,
as Thy beauty fills my soul,
for by Thy transforming power,
Thou hast made me whole.

3 Simply trusting Thee, Lord Jesus,
I behold Thee as Thou art,
and thy love, so pure, so changeless,
satisfies my heart.
Satisfies its deepest longings,
meets, supplies its ev’ry need,
compasseth me round with blessings;
Thine is love indeed! [Refrain]

So, as we gaze upon Jesus and get that clear vision of Him, His beauty will fill our souls and ignite a fire of love to God in our hearts.

The Berean Study Bible’s note on Luke 24:32 says:

Were not our hearts burning within us. The imagery of hearts burning signifies a deep emotional and spiritual awakening. This phrase reflects the transformative power of Jesus’ words, reminiscent of the fire of the Holy Spirit described in Acts 2:3. It also echoes the passion and conviction that believers experience when encountering divine truth.

The Benson Commentary says:

They found the preaching powerful, even when they knew not the preacher; it not only made things of the greatest importance very plain and clear to them, but, together with a divine light, brought a divine warmth into their souls, and kindled therein a holy fire of pious and devout affections: and this they now notice for the confirming of their belief, that it was indeed Jesus himself who had been talking with them all the while. 

And Barnes’ Notes on this verse say:

Our heart burn within us – This is an expression denoting the deep interest and pleasure which they had felt in his discourse before they knew who he was. They now recalled his instruction; they remembered how his words reached the “heart” as he spoke to them; how convincingly he had showed them that the Messiah ought to suffer, and how, while he talked to them of the Christ that they so much loved, their hearts glowed with intense love. This feeling was not confined to them alone. All the followers of Jesus know how precious and tender are the communications of the Saviour, and how the heart glows with love as they think or hear of his life, and sufferings, and death. Luke 24:32 Commentaries Biblehub.com

I’m going to be posting hymns about this burning of heart that will be helpful to use in your meditation time. I will use that as the tag “Burning of Heart.”

I’ve been wanted to include prayers with these devotionals and I thought I would start today. My prayers are not the most eloquent. But God wants us to pour our hearts out to Him and that’s what I try to do. He wants us to approach Him as children praying to their loving Father. I am really hoping for a breakthrough with this flare up. If you would like to, please join me in praying:

“Dear Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your great love for us. We thank You for all that You have been showing us through Your Word. I want to take time to pray for Your help in getting out of this flare up. My heart is burning in the wrong kind of way. I pray that You would search my heart and cleanse it of anything that might be blocking me off from You. Please cleanse it of the wrong kind of dread of You that we have been learning about…a dread of punishment….and fill my heart with Your love. Help me feel Your love for me. Please make my heart glow with an intense love for you in return.

My mind is overwrought…stress signals have been firing off for too long. Please quiet my mind and help me to hear Your voice. Please speak words of comfort to me. We have been studying about how You are our Good Shepherd. You are gentle and kind. Please teach us how to listen for Your tender voice and help us learn how to be guided by it instead of only by stress signals or pain signals.

I was listening to “Into the Heart of Jesus” over the weekend and the 2^nd verse says:

Into the will of Jesus,
Deeper and deeper I go,
Praying for grace to follow,
Seeking His way to know;
Bowing in full surrender
Low at His blessed feet,
Bidding Him take, break me and make,
Till I am molded and meet.

And that is my prayer today. I’m seeking to know Your way. Please show me Your way, Lord. And please help me to follow You in it. Please help us feel Your presence with us. May we see that Your love is like an ocean. And may we feel joy in Your presence. We pray for those glimpses of Jesus that will ignite our hearts with that holy flame of love for You. Thank You that we can know that You are with us every step of the way as we are learning how to walk with You and commune with You.

I thank You for the healing I have experienced in the past from flare ups. And I pray, if it be Your will, that I could experience healing from the flare up I am having now. Please change whatever settings need to be changed in my mind….please make a new thought pathway for me…please help me to see things through Your eyes. I am stuck and need to have a breakthrough. Please restore balance to my nervous system. Please bring healing.

I thank You for anyone praying with me. And I pray for them and for any prayer requests they may have. I praise You that You already know what they are. You see them and know what they need.   

Please help us to remember to look to You and follow You as our guide as we go through this week. May we grow closer and closer to You each day. In Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen.”