Being saved can be like this: the Holy Spirit is knocking on the door of your heart. He waits patiently. For a while, you’ve ignored Him, but He keeps knocking. Then you think, “He really must be wanting to get into my heart,” and you realize that you need Him in your heart. So you go up to the door, throw it open and let Him in. And as He makes Himself at home, you find yourself going through a beautiful transformation that has you reflecting the very love that saved you.
I want to look at this in two directions: inward and outward. Since they’re so extensive, I’ll be devoting a post to each. Today, we’re talking about a few of the internal aspects of that precious transformation that happen after you’re saved and as you truly start following the Lord.
I also want to put an emphasis on the words “a few,” because one, we can’t limit God, two, God works differently in each of us, and three, God is never done working in us. This isn’t a definitive list of everything that happens once someone gets saved—it’s more of an explanation of some of the commonalities that I and others shared when we got saved.
So, let’s get into it! Today, we’re going to be in both the Old and New Testaments.
Once you allow Christ into your heart, He begins work on its interior. The well-known verse 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV) says “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” So, that tells us that this work is not a renovation, rather, it’s a complete reconstruction. You quite literally become a new person in Christ. He won’t just fill in the holes of your heart with Himself–He will rebuild your heart with Himself as the foundation.
And as He does that, you find yourself on your knees in gratitude, because one, you realize how broken you really are, and two, you realize the sheer magnitude of what Christ has done for you. From that gratitude and realization comes a new, fiery hunger, and it’s not out of loneliness, it’s out of love. In other words, as we spend more time with the Lord, we hunger more for His Presence, because we are actively falling in love with Him. Psalm 84:1-2 (NIV) say “How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.” As you grow in Him, those verses become an every day feeling for you. You never stop hungering for the Lord’s Presence.
From being in the Lord’s Presence, you start to find joy not in earthly assets, but instead in Him and serving Him. In John 15:10-11 (NIV), Jesus says “‘If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in His love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.'” You find joy in pleasing Him instead of in pleasing others, and rejecting the sinful habits your lost self relished brings you happiness, because you’re becoming a new, found person that serves a true and living God. What’s more—He could call you to do something that you seriously don’t want to do, but you find joy in it, because in doing so you’re serving the Lord (more on that in the next post!).
This can be expanded to say that when you’re in circumstances that you don’t want to be in, you find hope in the Lord instead of in your surroundings. We see how faulty the world is, and instead place our faith and strength in God, who never changes. Psalm 62:5-7 (NIV) say “Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from Him. Truly He is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress, I will not be shaken. My salvation and my honor depend on God; He is my mighty rock, my refuge.” In the circumstances where you on your own foundation would crumble, you’re now able to triumph, because your new foundation is the God who never fails, and your hope doesn’t stand in you and what you can do—it stands in Him and what He has done.
There is so much more we could get into here, but I believe that everything we’ve talked about so far can fall under the umbrella of God’s love. It is immeasurable and beyond our comprehension. As we keep walking in it, we find ourselves so filled with it that we start to reflect it outwardly (and that’s for another post). But for today, think about the innumerable ways that your heart changed when you first welcomed Jesus into it. And if you haven’t let Him in yet, answer the door.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Katie Pennington is a writer and editor who is originally from Hazard, Kentucky, but currently resides with her family in central Tennessee (though she frequently visits her Appalachian roots). Her favorite Bible verse is Psalm 42:5, which reminds her that in despair, there’s hope in God, and there’s healing in praising Him.