Restore | Heart
RESTORE: HEART — When Grace Gets Personal
January is the season of fresh starts.
New habits. New calendars. New gym memberships. And—if we’re honest—a whole lot of confidence that usually lasts a few weeks.
But beneath all the goal-setting and motivation, most of us want something deeper than a reset. We want something restored.
The reality is you can change your schedule without changing your heart.
You can change your habits without changing what drives them.
Proverbs puts it this way: “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” (Proverbs 4:23)
In other words, your choices, your relationships, and your reactions don’t start in your planner—they start in your heart.
So what happens when Jesus meets a heart that’s tired, guarded, ashamed, or just worn down by life?
One of the clearest pictures of that is found in the story of a man named Zacchaeus.
A Man No One Roots For
Zacchaeus wasn’t just a tax collector—he was the chief tax collector. He ran the system. He was wealthy. Powerful. And almost certainly lonely.
He was the kind of person people avoided. The kind of name that made a room go quiet.
And yet, something in him wanted to see Jesus.
There was just one problem—he was too short to see over the crowd. So this grown, wealthy, respected man did something wildly undignified: he climbed a tree in public.
That moment says more than we realize.
It tells us Zacchaeus had reached a point where dignity mattered less than desperation. He didn’t care how he looked. He just wanted something real.
Jeremiah says, “If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.” (Jeremiah 29:13)
Zacchaeus was looking. And thankfully, he wasn’t the only one.
Jesus Sees Who Everyone Else Avoids
As Jesus walks by, He stops, looks up into the tree, and does something shocking—He calls Zacchaeus by name. “Zacchaeus! Come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” (Luke 19:5)
Jesus doesn’t say, “Fix a few things first.”
He doesn’t say, “Clean up your reputation and then we’ll talk.”
He doesn’t say, “Prove you’re serious.”
He invites Himself into Zacchaeus’s life exactly as it is.
That’s grace.
God once described His restoring work like this: “I will give you a new heart… I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36:26)
Zacchaeus had built a hard heart—shaped by choices, protected by money, and reinforced by shame. But Jesus didn’t see a lost cause. He saw someone worth restoring.
And this is where things get personal for us.
A lot of people are comfortable watching Jesus from a distance. Maybe from a church service, a podcast, or a verse shared online.
But letting Him come home? That’s different.
I’s one thing to see Jesus in public. It’s another thing to let Him walk into your private life.
Zacchaeus didn’t hesitate. He climbed down and welcomed Jesus in with joy.
The crowd, on the other hand, wasn’t impressed.
“He’s going to be the guest of a notorious sinner,” they muttered.
But something had already started changing inside Zacchaeus.
When Grace Gets Personal
Without being asked. Without being pressured. Without being given a checklist—Zacchaeus says: “I’ll give half my wealth to the poor. And if I’ve cheated anyone, I’ll pay them back four times as much.”
This wasn’t behavior management.
This was heart transformation.
Jesus responds: “Salvation has come to this home today.”
The word Jesus uses doesn’t just mean “forgiven.” It means healed, made whole, in a word...restored.
This wasn’t about someday getting into heaven.
This was about becoming whole right now.
Zacchaeus didn’t change to earn grace.
He changed because grace had already found him.
What a Restored Heart Looks Like
Jesus once said: “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21)
But it works the other way too.
When your heart starts changing, your treasure follows.
A restored heart starts forgiving.
A restored heart starts loosening its grip on money, control, and pride.
A restored heart starts repenting—not because it’s forced, but because it’s free.
Zacchaeus didn’t give to get into the Kingdom. The Kingdom had already gotten into him.
Your Turn in the Tree
Zacchaeus isn’t remembered because he was rich.
He’s remembered because Jesus found him—and didn’t leave him the same.
So let’s make this personal.
Where are you keeping your distance from Jesus?
What part of your life feels off-limits?
What’s the “room in the house” you hope He doesn’t walk into?
Maybe today is your Zacchaeus moment.
Maybe Jesus is standing under your tree, looking up and saying,
“Come down. I want to come home with you.”
Not to shame you.
Not to lecture you.
Not to expose you.
But to restore what you thought might be too far gone.
Reflection Questions
Take a moment to sit with these:
What in your life right now makes you feel like Zacchaeus—curious about Jesus, but hesitant to be truly seen?
Is there an area where you’re trying to “clean things up” before letting Jesus in? What would it look like to invite Him into that space as it is?
When you’ve experienced real grace before, how did it change the way you treated people, handled money, or made decisions?
If Jesus asked to “come to your house” today, what part of your daily life would be the hardest to open—and why?
