What Does it Mean to Ask Jesus Into Your Heart?

In the religious world, we use lots of symbolism to help define some large concepts. Things like, being born again, asking Jesus into your heart, or being saved are just some phrases we use.

If you have been raised in church, these phrases may not seem foreign to you; however, to others they can be a bit confusing. What does it mean to ask Jesus into your heart? I recently discovered something really cool about this! I can’t wait to share it with you.:-)

Asking Jesus into Your Heart

In our family we often tell the story of my nephew’s response to having Jesus in His heart. He was around the age of four when he asked his mommy this question. “If Jesus is in my heart does that mean He catches food and water to eat as it goes down my throat?”

This is just how the literal mind of a preschooler works. Unfortunately many older believers don’t advance far from this type of thought. Jesus lives in them and that is as far as it goes.

What does it mean to ask Jesus into your heart?

In order to answer that question let’s take a look at a verse I’m sure you are very familiar with.

If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:9 (NLT)

First, we know from this verse to be saved, rescued, delivered, and protected from the eternal consequences of sin, we need to declare, promise, and align ourselves with the belief that Jesus is our Lord.

Now, that is the tricky part! What does it really mean to make Jesus your Lord?

The word used here for Lord is Kyrion. It means the one who exercises absolute ownership rights, master, or sovereign.

Jesus needs to become our Supreme Ruler.

Ok hang in there with me… the cool part is almost here.

There are 3 places that God wants to rule in your life.

What are these three places?

• Your mind
• will
• and emotions

That is actually the meaning of the term “heart” used in the Bible. This word means the center, mind, character, will, intentions, or inner self. Wow! That gives a much more in depth meaning than just saying the word heart.

Another great way that Strongs defined this word heart is the desire and decisions that define who you are. Jesus wants to be Lord of your thoughts, emotions, and decisions.

Ok! Here it is! I just love it when science and scripture confirm each other in such majestic ways!

God created you with a special throne in your “heart” that He wants to sit on!

Did you know that God created our brains with a special “seat” just for Him? This seat is located in the center of your brain in a little place called amygdala or the “seat of emotions”.

(If you have teenagers at home you should check out my post on the teenage brain. They have the most active seat of emotions.) 

It is in this little control center of our brains that decisions are made. The amygdala receives information from all the other parts of the body and then decides how to respond. That sounds a little like the definition we had of “heart” up above doesn’t it. It is the place where desires and decisions that define us are found.

More than just decision making, the amygdala also is the control center of our emotions. It is here that hormones are dispersed into your body that tells your brain how it should respond in different situations. All of your emotions, fears, anxiety, excitement, joy, anger, etc. come from this source.

So when we make the decision to accept and declare Jesus as our Savior and Lord, we are asking Him to be the “man in the chair” of our minds.

We are saying,

“Jesus, I want You to rule over my mind and my spirit. Help me to align my spiritual and physical body to Your Word. Take a seat in the center of my being, on the seat of my emotions in my mind and help me to submit my mind, will, and emotions to your authority. Lord, I want You to be at the very center of who I am.”

Why is this so important?

Do you want your prayers answered? Do you want to live in the fullness of all that God has planned for you? Of course you do! If we want all that is legally ours purchased by the blood of Jesus then we need to allow God to rule over more than just our belief in Him.

Too often we compartmentalize our lives and only let the Lord become Master over what is currently convenient for us.

• Yes, Lord you can have my mind, but I don’t have any intention of renewing it with the truth in Your Word. Oh, and don’t ask me to give up my favorite pass time, (TV show, music, video game, etc.) even if it doesn’t honor you. I’ll just do those things on my time.
• OK God, you can conform my will to yours, however, there are a few people that I just can’t forgive and certain habits that I can’t give up just because that is just the way I am.
• Now Jesus, You can be in charge of my emotions but I’m just warning you, I have my mom’s temper or I suffer from depression and anxiety.so that part can’t be fixed.

Nope! That is not going to work my friend. He requires to be Master, Lord, and Supreme Ruler over all these areas of your life.

Asking Jesus into your heart is joyfully surrendering your mind, will, and emotions, to His loving correction and teaching.

When you allow Christ to take the center seat, ruling over your mind, will, and emotions, then your “heart”, desire and decision maker, becomes transformed to His image.

Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Psalms 37:3-4 (NASB).

This is a different word for heart. It still means inner man, but also includes, knowledge, understanding, thinking, reflections and memory. When we allow God to rule in our mind, will, and emotions, His will becomes ours and our desires become the same as His. When we delight ourselves in the Lord, we are taking joy in His ways and His will and celebrating it.

So if you haven’t fully surrendered these things to Him there is not a better time than the present.

A Sample Prayer for You

Dear Jesus, I know that there are some areas of my mind, will, and emotions where I have not given you complete control. Today I am asking You to forgive me and to take a seat in the heart of who I am. Help me to trust in You more so that I can bring my mind, will, and emotions under Your control and be completely lead by Your Spirit.

I thank You for being gentle and patient with me. My prayer is that as You begin to control this area of my brain so that I will not only spiritually grow and heal, but I will also heal physically. I claim 3 John 1:2 which says as my soul prospers my health will also prosper. Lord be enthroned on my seat of emotions today.

As I align my spirit with Your Word I claim that my body will also come into perfect alignment and all of my hormones levels will be in order. As I act in the spirit to control my emotions, my physical body will learn and begin to function properly as well. I am excited about my desires becoming one with Yours. Thank You for being my Savior.

Has this word ministered to you today? Has the Lord given you new insight? I would love to hear from you. Leave me a comment below:)

Blessings from our family to yours,

Madaline

Need some encouragement on having a positive attitude? Check out this post by David.