Ezekiel 36:26 “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.”
This passage is among the most glorious in all Scripture in that the gift of a “new heart” signifies the new birth of a human being, which occurs with the regeneration by the Holy Spirit. The “heart” stands for our old nature and the “spirit” indicates the governing power of the mind, which directs our thoughts and our conduct. A “heart of stone” is a stubborn and self-willed person. We see these kinds of people all the time, in fact we probably have a few in our family; I know I do. Or maybe that person can be you or me at times. I know that I can easily respond unkindly when someone is mean to me or mistreats me. In fact, it’s almost as if my sin filter has been adjusted this last year through my grief process. It used to be very easy for me to lose my patience and snap right back at someone who was unkind, but now there is a sensitivity that has never been there before. Something has happened through the loss of my child and the Lord has caused my heart to become so tender as a result of my brokenness, my pain and my sorrow. I truly believe that He has put a “heart of flesh” into me and now my old nature that used to rear it’s ugly head, is now pliable and responsive to the Holy Spirit.
Interestingly, my lifelong prayer as a young Christian was that God would remove my crusty old heart and that He would teach me how to be kind. You see, I always knew that I had an underlying river of rage that flowed beneath the surface of my character. I came from a deeply wounded childhood where things were not fair and just; I was put in situations where I felt trapped and abused, but that little girl never knew how to cope and so I internalized so much of what occurred and I became hardened on the outside. I knew that what lay beneath the surface of my façade was brittle and that protective barrier was something that allowed me to get through life by the skin of my teeth. But when I got triggered, that ugly sinful nature would react in ways that were unbecoming and downright hateful. I never liked that person inside of me and it took a lot of work for me to hide her, but ultimately, it was like squeezing a tube of toothpaste; when I got backed into a corner, the real me would come out with her claws and fangs showing and it wasn’t pretty.
2 Peter 1:3 says, “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.” Christ’s power, that same power that raised Him from the dead, is sufficient and complete. What I have learned is that I didn’t need to ask God to teach me how to be kind or how to be godly, because He had already instilled in me every spiritual resource in order to manifest, sustain and perfect godly living. Through this daily renewing of my relationship with Christ, He has gone beyond the mere surface of my awareness of Him. He has placed in me an intimate sharing of my life with Him and now there is a personal identification with Him. Through this past year of sitting before my God and really getting to know Him on a more intimate level, He has revealed His majesty and moral excellence within me so that I have ultimately come to reveal His nature instead of mine. The implication is pretty stunning if you really think about it, because now His glory and His excellence is actually dwelling within me, and when you squeeze me, it is His character that comes forth and not my own.
– Melody
