Ezekial 36:26-27 (CEB)

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove your stony heart from your body and replace it with a living one, 27 and I will give you my spirit so that you may walk according to my regulations and carefully observe my case laws.


Reflection

There are definitely times in life when I wish God could just switch out my heart for a new one, a more loving one. I want that to just happen without my doing any work to better my heart. I don’t want to have to actually look inward and deal with whatever it is that has hardened my heart towards someone or something. That’s a lot of effort, that’s a lot of picking at stuff I don’t want to deal with. Just switch it out!

The Spirit is probably the closest we have to that though. Have you ever gone to a friend to complain about someone else, and because this is a really good friend (and not one that will just agree with you no matter what), they go, “Okay…but did you consider that…” And you get that Spirit moving realization that maybe it’s not totally an “I’m right, they’re wrong” kind of situation? It’s in that moment that our heart softens, it’s in that moment that God enters in, it’s in that moment that the Spirit is at work – and that’s great! But that feeling doesn’t last forever, we then have to work to keep our heart in that place, to fight that internal draw that wants our hearts to harden again. To do that, we have to actively be seeking out the Holy Spirit, to tune into Her frequency in order to keep ourselves from the stony hearts we once had.

by Rachel Callender


For Pondering & Prayer

Think of a situation where you felt your heart “warm up” or “grow three sizes” or however you may describe it. What was that like? What did you do with that?

Prayer: Dear God, often we allow our hearts to become stony, but we seek Your Spirit in order to find freedom and life beyond that. Give us a new heart this day. Amen.