A New Heart | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: A New Heart | Previous Challenge Entry
By Ellen Janson
01/11/24
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Sarah was in the prime of her life. She was 35, happily married and had just had her third child. She and her husband both had successful careers, and a great social life. Things were busy, but that’s how Sarah liked it. Outwardly, she had everything.

But Sarah had a deep ache in her heart that she couldn’t shake. She had a sin from her past that just wouldn’t let go. Almost daily, it bubbled up to the surface of her mind. Sometimes it caused her to feel intense guilt. Other times she wondered how God might make her pay for it - when and how He might drop the “bomb”.

One day Sarah’s older sister invited her to a bible study; she reluctantly agreed to attend. The topic of the very first session was repentance and God’s unlimited forgiveness. Sarah couldn’t believe that HER sin could actually be forgiven, but the leader had insisted that yes, with confession and a heart repentance, God would forgive ANY sin.

With tears and much trembling, Sarah finally worked up the courage to confess her sin to the most spiritual person she knew - her mother. Almost instantly, it was as if a huge weight had literally been lifted off her shoulders. She felt a freedom she hadn’t felt in 15 years.

Suddenly all of life was viewed through a new lens. Things that had seemed so important didn’t seem to matter anymore, and things Sarah had never thought about before took on new meaning. Her heart was changing. She was changing. It almost felt as if this new heart no longer fit into her old body.

While driving with her toddler strapped into his car seat, she felt a powerful urge to pull her car over, unbuckle her baby and celebrate the rainbow in the sky. Pointing to it, she wanted her baby to delight in it as much as she did. Sarah had seen rainbows before - she couldn’t explain to her husband later that day the sense of awe and wonder she had felt.

Getting dressed for a gathering with her parents and siblings, Sarah had a check in her spirit while putting on a new very expensive dress. She was reminded of her sister’s recent financial struggles, and she felt a conviction that it might be hard for her sister to see such fashion. Again, Sarah couldn’t quite explain her changed dress to her husband, nor the deep tenderness she felt for her sister.

When she was terribly wronged by a family member, Sarah felt a supernatural compassion for him. She knew her old self would have held onto the anger with self righteous indignation, but hadn’t she been forgiven for great sin? She would protect herself and her children from this relative, but her heart felt only sympathy for him. Again, she wrestled a little with this change, and could only reconcile it as “a God thing”.

Sarah continued to go to Bible study and began to incorporate prayer time into her daily life (even if it meant memorizing a verse while nursing a baby and chasing two toddlers). She eventually came to understand that she truly did have a new heart - she had been reborn. Even though outwardly everything appeared the same, since she had repented and accepted Jesus as her savior, the beating life inside of her was completely new. She was forever changed.

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