Made for More: 30 Days of Experiencing More Life, Love, and FreedomSample

Day 5: The Redeemed Heart

Jesus talked often about the heart—and for good reason. If we’re going to experience zoe, the full and real life of the Kingdom, it starts there. Just as our physical bodies depend on the heart to live, our spiritual lives depend on the heart to thrive.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus doesn’t just offer rules to follow or moral ideals to aspire. He offers something more: a new way of living that begins at the heart. He’s not asking for religious performance; He’s inviting us into intimate transformation. What was once about law and ritual is now about faith and relationship. The old covenant is giving way to something better—and it’s personal.

Right in the middle of the Beatitudes, Jesus says:

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” Matthew 5:8

According to theologians Walvoord and Zuck, this purity isn’t something earned. It’s given—being made clean on the inside through faith in God’s provision. When this gift is delivered, a shift happens at the deepest level of our being. The heart becomes a holy home for a holy resident.

Jesus wants our hearts whole because belief starts and continues there. And if we cling to lies—about God, ourselves, or our past—or they cling to us, they will hold us back from walking in the life He offers.

That’s why He said:

• Matthew 6:21 – Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
• Luke 6:45 – Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.
• John 14:1, 27 – Do not let your hearts be troubled... my peace I give you.

Jesus was always going after the inside. He knew that if He had the heart, He had the person. And when He gets our heart, He begins to work with us and through us in profound ways.

In Matthew 13:15, Jesus grieves that people's hearts had grown hard, and He offers a path to restoration:

“Otherwise…they might understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.”

Healing the heart was central to His mission. In Luke 4, Jesus declares He came to heal the brokenhearted. That’s still His mission today.

There’s an invitation in all of this—a simple, powerful one:
Give Jesus access.
Trust Him with your heart.
Let Him bring healing where you’ve been hurt.
Let Him tell you who you really are.

Because the wounds and their false message came into our lives at a moment and then worked overtime to compromise our hearts and ultimately our identity as beloved sons and daughters…so it will be with the truth. It’s the truth that is supposed to heal and set us free. And yet far too many of us aren’t free. The lies are all too often easier to believe because they have been experienced, but over time, as we walk with Him into the life He’s offering us, experiencing God’s presence and HIs voice, that’s when the loving process of transformation, when we come to experience, literally see and feel what the truth is about us… God’s love isn't just theology or theory; it is real, and when an image bearer experiences God’s love is real, that is what coming fully alive really looks like.

Because it always starts with the heart, what you believe matters, and God is working, moving, and pursuing us to be still and know (experientially) that He is, and He is in love with you.

As you reflect on all this with God today, consider asking Him:

God, what have I believed about my heart? Have I believed that it is bad, or wicked, or have I believed that it is good? And what differences does it make which way I believe?

Jesus, I invite you to heal my heart. I ask you to give me eyes to see and ears to hear where you want to go in my heart, where in the files kept in my heart do you want to start the healing journey? What have I believed that isn’t right or good or true about myself or about you?

Father, is there one phrase or sentence that feels like it’s just for me today? Would You help me hear it clearly and understand why it matters?