Waking the Dead: The Secret to a Heart Fully Alive

by John Eldredge

We and the world, my children, will always be at war. Retreat is impossible. Arm yourselves. —LEIF ENGER, Peace Like a River

When we hear the words eternal life, most of us tend to interpret that as “a life that waits for us in eternity.” But eternal means “unending,” not “later.” The Scriptures use the term to mean we can never lose it. It’s a life that can’t be taken from us. The offer is life, and that life starts now.

yes, the offer is life, but you’re going to have to fight for it because there’s an Enemy in your life with a different agenda.

you were born into a world at war, and you will live all your days in the midst of a great battle, involving all the forces of heaven and hell and played out here on earth.

There is a glory to your life that your Enemy fears, and he is hell-bent on destroying that glory before you act on it.

The story of your life is the story of the long and brutal assault on your heart by the one who knows what you could be and fears it.

Fate has chosen him. A Fellowship will protect him. Evil will hunt him.

Why do so many relationships fail? Because one or both partners no longer have a heart for making it work.

Why are so many people struggling with depression and discouragement? They’ve lost heart.

The heart lives in the far more bloody and magnificent realities of living and dying and loving and hating. That’s why those who live from their minds are detached from life. Things don’t seem to touch them very much; they puzzle at the way others are so affected by life, and they conclude others are emotional and unstable. Meanwhile, those who live from the heart find those who live from the mind . . . unavailable. Yes, they are physically present. So is your computer. This is the sorrow of many marriages, and the number one disappointment of children who feel entirely missed or misunderstood by their parents.

WOW !!

Surely we know that love is more than feeling loving; for if Christ had followed his emotions, he would not have gone to the cross for us.

Everything you love is what makes a life worth living.

This is the last thing the Enemy wants you to know. His plan from the beginning was to assault the heart, just as the Wicked Witch did to the Tin Woodman. Make them so busy, they ignore the heart. Wound them so deeply, they don’t want a heart. Twist their theology so they despise the heart. Take away their courage. Destroy their creativity. Make intimacy with God impossible for them.

Satan's plan

Most of the misery we suffer on this planet is the fruit of the human heart gone bad.

You’ve been far more than forgiven. God has removed your heart of stone. You’ve been delivered of what held you back from what you were meant to be. You’ve been rescued from the part of you that sabotages even your best intentions. Your heart has been circumcised to God. Your heart has been set free.

It has always been God’s plan not just to forgive you but to restore you:

We are saved by his life when we find that we are able to live the way we’ve always known we should live. We are free to be what he meant when he meant us.