“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you;
I will remove from
you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my
decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”
Ezekiel 36:26-27 (NIV)
“I will give you a
new heart. . .” God speaks here. He speaks of His children being given a
new heart. The LORD promised to give His children more than a revamped or a
cleaned up heart but a NEW one.
“. . . and put a new
spirit in you . . .” God goes one step further and gives His children a new
spirit, a part of Himself. One of the books I am reading this summer, Follow Me, by David Platt gave me
something to ponder. Mr. Platt says,” God puts the source of His life in the
center of your life.” Think about this-the source of God’s life, His Spirit in
our lives.
“ . . I will remove
from you your heart of stone. . . .” God
goes into detail and tells His children, then and now, that he
figuratively performs surgery on us. He cuts out the bad, the unfeeling heart.
“. . . and give you a
heart of flesh.” The Lord God completes the procedure by replacing our
hardened hearts with a new, tender heart—a healthy organ.
“ . . . And I will
put my Spirit in you. . .” Did you catch it? God will put His Spirit in us. He does this because
He loves us. His love is so great He wants each of us to be like Him.
“. . . and move you
to follow my decrees. . .” Because God gives us a new heart and His Spirit,
we see his decrees as vital, living, and basic to our (lives). When God reveals
Himself to us we want to please Him. He tells us “If you love me, you will obey
what I command you.” (John 14:15)
“. . . and be careful
to keep my laws.” God directs us to exercise care as we try to follow His
Commandments. Our world seems to have gotten careless in obeying His laws.
A
perusal of any newspaper will show us the state of our world. In a small town
in our county, people moving into a house noticed something had stained the
carpet. They called the police. The police discovered over 20 ounces of mercury
in the home. This element is toxic and is usually used as an acelerant or in
the making of bombs.
Both our
county courthouse and our city building recently received a threat of a
‘chemical’ bomb. The paper reported the chemical to be cyanide. The police
traced the phone call to a pay phone in the north part of our city.
All we
can do is pray for our world.
Hi Cecelia! We sure do need tender hearts...'a healthy organ' like you said. So much craziness in the world. We can only hope to put our eyes to Jesus, and ask us to help change what needs to be changed.
ReplyDeleteGreat break-down of Scripture again :)
Peace in Christ,
Ceil
Ceil:
DeleteWe never know when God will allow something into our lives that makes us rely on that new tender heart. We should always be ready to show love and grace and mercy to all we meet.
Oh Cecelia, what a wonderful scripture to meditate on, it goes so well with the post I just finished writing.... yes, about replacing our heart of stone for a heart of flesh.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
Marja: I can't wait to get over to your blog and read your thoughts. Thank you for stopping by my place.
DeleteThis is a very dear passage to me. It's all marked up in my Bible. Makes me happy just to see it again. :)
ReplyDeleteRhonda:
DeleteThank you for your kind thought. When we realize the truth in this passage, we should never have to resort to any behavior that is contrary to God's Will for our lives. (Pointing three fingers back at myself :)).