Didn’t our Hearts Burn Within Us

'They said to each other, "Didn't our hearts burn within us as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?" (Luke 24:32)

Recently, I was reading the account of the two followers of Jesus on the road to Emmaus. I wonder what your favourite part of this story is? Is it the part where ‘Jesus himself suddenly came and began walking with them”? (Luke 24:15). Maybe it is,

'Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.' (Luke 24:27)
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I think that my favourite verse in this account is "Didn’t our hearts burn within us as he talked with us...” (Luke 24:32)

Almost four decades ago, I sat in a small midweek youth meeting in our church in Glasgow. Mr Hugh Black was speaking to us about his experiences in the Island of Lewis, one of the Hebridean islands off the north west coast of Scotland. He felt God led him there to preach about the baptism in the Holy Spirit towards the end of the great revival that took place there in 1949. Mr Black heard first hand from Christians of how God’s mighty presence had swept over the island and Mr Black himself encountered the supernatural power of God there. He told us of opened eyed visions of angels, the appearance of spiritual light, angelic ministry, miraculous conversions preceded by a holy conviction of sin and much more. While he spoke to us about these things, ‘Jesus himself suddenly came’ and  my heart burned within me.

I think that most of you reading this will be able to identify with this experience. You too will have known times when, in speaking with others about the things of God, ‘Jesus himself suddenly came’ and you too could say ‘didn’t our hearts burn with us’.

It can happen when reading a spiritual book, listening to anointed music, singing in church meetings, listening to sermons...the list is endless. Jesus delights in drawing near to his children.


Charles Spurgeon said,

‘Of all the things in the world that can set the heart burning, there is nothing like the presence of Jesus’.

I pray this week as you tune in to our various church podcasts, Zoom meetings, or read your Bible, that Jesus himself will suddenly draw near and your heart will burn within you. And the wonderful truth is that Jesus heart is also burning within him, to reveal himself to us. 

Pauline Anderson