Cut to the heart

Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” Acts 2:37

Not only do spoken words cut to the heart, but written ones have the same potential. One of the things that drew me to writing was the powerful impact the writing of others has had on my life. I remember even as an adolescent, lying in bed with a book – the journals of Jim Elliott for example – and feeling exposed, convicted, cut.

What a miracle – that God can speak through words on a page or a computer screen, sometimes years after they have been written, continents away, and through them bring a sense of my own unworthiness, a knowledge of His presence, the impression that He is breathing on my life, infusing my heart with faith and hope like air fills lungs.

This is not something we people engineer. Rather, it is a Spirit-wind thing: “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8). The Spirit indwells the writer. Deep calls to deep in the reader.

Lord, please use my life, my words to ‘cut to the heart.’