He Knows Our Hearts

He Knows Our Hearts. By Cathy Tesar

On the surface, things in my life seemed good.  I had my first real job after college with benefits and a salary.  I had good friends, a nice place to live, money to pay the bills.  But on the inside, well,  that was a different story.  

In the four years I was in college we lost five family members, including my Mom.  I was not only heartbroken, I felt completely shaken.  I was in constant fear of losing friends or family, and even my own life.  If someone wasn’t where they were supposed to be, when they were supposed to be, I assumed the worst with great anxiety.  I had a nightmare one night that a grim reaper looking thing was standing in my room, pointing and laughing at me.  I didn’t know Jesus, I knew little about God.  I didn’t know what happened when a person died, I just knew it was something to be feared.  

But God knows our hearts – even those deep down, thought we pushed it way down hidden places.  And even better, out of His great love, He doesn’t want those deep down hurting places to remain. He wants them brought out into His light and His truth.  He draws us to Himself and He loves us with the only love that can truly heal us.  

So that was the true state of my heart, one Good Friday, when I found myself driving home from work, and just started looking for a church.  When I found one with cars in the parking lot, I went inside.  

And it was that night that a girl who knew not very much about God, but a lot of scary things about death, listened anew to the story about a man hanging on a cross.  Except that the man was no ordinary man. He was Jesus, author and perfecter of faith (Hebrews 12:2).  Jesus, who is near to the broken hearted and who saves the crushed in spirit (Psalm 34:18). She'd heard the stories before but dismissed them.

And it was Jesus, the man who hung on a cross, the only One who conquered death, who set free this girl who was trapped by her fear of death.

Challenge: Take time to thank God for the victories and freedoms you have because of His death on the cross.   Ask Him to bring people into your life who need to hear the truth about Jesus' victory over death.
 
Prayer: Lord, thank you that you died on the cross to break the power of sin and death.  Thank you that you heal our hurting hearts.  Open our eyes to see all that we have because of your death on the cross.