The Bible’s “Big Story” is that all human hearts are out of synch with the living God, yet He came to humanity as a human being as Jesus Christ to restore people’s connection to Him. The “Small Story” is that Jesus has been in working in me for decades to realign my life and will to God’s.

Our human choices to think, speak, and act contrary to God’s will cause our heart (our innermost being) to be out of sync with Him. This is spiritual heart arrhythmia. It causes us to be at odds with God.

Physical heart arrhythmia is an irregular heartbeat. It is treated by what’s called heart ablation. Heart ablation uses heat energy to burn tiny scars in the heart that block irregular electrical signals and restore a healthy heartbeat. My brother had the procedure and it worked wonders for him.

Paul of Tarsus said: “I bear on my body the marks (scars) of Jesus.” (See Galatians 6:17.) The prophet Jeremiah predicted that there would come a time when God would write His laws on people’s hearts. (See Jermiah 31:33.) This is the process of sanctification that is taught throughout the New Testament. Once people come to the living Jesus and surrender to Him, He begins to work inside of them to change them from glory to glory (step by step) into His image.

Even Jesus, the Son of God, “learned obedience from what He suffered.” (See Hebrews 5:8.) The way to sanctification (growth into holiness) runs through trials and scars. It’s not handed to us on a silver platter. It’s free, but it’s not an easy process. “Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me.” (Matthew 16:24.)

We need to humbly surrender to God’s process of spiritual heart ablation. We need to let Him lead us into and through humbling and difficult circumstances, trusting, honoring, serving, and obeying Him as we go. We need to let His spiritual fire burn in our hearts so that His scars can realign us to His will deep within our heart.

“So set a fire down in my soul
That I can’t contain and I can’t control
I want more of You God, I want more of You God.”
–Will Reagan and United Pursuit