Marks on Your Heart. By: Aaron Stolarik

I sat in church this morning and listened to the sermon. I opened my Bible to the verse printed in the bulletin and read along with our minister and I highlighted a few verses. Just then I thought to myself, am I doing this for my personal benefit or to show everyone around me that I was following along and may go back and read this verse later. Just then a thought came into my head, “It’s not the marks your make in your Bible, but the marks your Bible makes on your heart.” It must have come from God because I’m not smart enough to come up with something so simple but yet so complex. It’s not about how many marks you make in your Bible or who sees who making those marks, it’s about what you take away from reading God’s word and how you take what you read and spread it to those who need to hear it. Reading God’s word should change your heart, not just the appearance of the pages of your Bible. My wife and I have committed to spending time each night, no matter what time it may be before we go to sleep, to reading the Bible. Not just reading it in bed, but to go into separate rooms and read and pray by ourselves. Our personal worship should be just us and God. It should feel like sitting with your best friend or your closest loved one and talking about your day or what is bothering you that day. A verse I feel really drives this point home is Romans 5:10, 10 “For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son.” God sent His son to die for us so we could be His friends. Every time I think about this, I can’t help but praise His name and just thank Him for loving us so much! No matter what we do or how we treat Him, He will never let us go and He will always love us. Amen