Two Hearts by Jan Powell

Two Hearts

by Jan Powell

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you”

(Ezekiel 36:26, NIV).

In the spring of 2019, I got an unexpected fresh start. I didn’t realize that a vital organ had been on a gradual decline since birth. With no warning, my heart quit during a routine medical procedure.

Immediate intervention saved me. Precision surgery left a temporary scar and a chunk of titanium that now controls the muscle keeping me alive. Did luck position me within inches of a cardiac surgeon and lifesaving device at my critical moment of need? I think not.

When God installs a new spiritual heart, his process is similarly dramatic. Of course, his procedure doesn’t require an operating room or a medical team rushing to pull someone back from the dead. Even better, the new heart he provides doesn’t need to be replaced in ten years.

The heart God gives includes the lasting presence of the Holy Spirit. As Christian writers, we never live alone, because we have God with us.

Sometimes my writing seems to act like my heart did April 26, 2019. It fails even when I’ve followed the appropriate process to produce good work and expect everything to be fine. So, I look for words to convey the power of God in life. I’m glad for all the underlined and highlighted verses, and the well-read pages that fill my thoughts. I want others to grasp the offer of a new heart extended to everyone who hears the call of the Lord and responds.

Meanwhile, I live with two changed hearts. The support for one will need replacing, but the other will function perfectly forever, filling me with God’s inspiration. This divinely implanted heart is better than the one with a ten-year shelf life.

Holy inspiration never runs out. Each writer called and filled by God can count on that.

We all can agree that God’s Word helps us in these moments with energy, hope, and ideas. We can face our computers with confidence because the same God who called us and gave us new hearts will go with us and provide the spirit of new words to glorify him.

Father of an eternally new heart, refresh the heartbeat of all my writing for you. Amen.

Jan Powell, a graduate of the University of South Florida, helps writers through Writing with You, offering editing, rewriting, and coaching for fiction and non-fiction. Published in The Wordsmith Journal and Splickety, she has written for Inkspirations since the beginning.

Her in-depth editing includes poetry, devotionals, memoirs, fantasy, murder mysteries, thrillers, romantic suspense, and flash fiction.

She has hosted Tampa Word Weavers for almost two decades and has served in its leadership.