A NEW HEART

Ezekiel 36:26-27

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.

Ezekiel 36:26-27, NKJV

The heart with its intentions is the eternal core of our being and the precious part of us that distinguishes us as creatures made in God's image; only God and human beings have a spirit. It is only with our heart that we can genuinely love and worship, and this is why our praise and service mean nothing to God if they don't come from the heart.

An important clarification is that the heart, as the Bible speaks of it, is not our feelings, but our power to choose a course of action. Spirit is "unbodily" personal power, the power we have in life to choose, take initiative, and express creativity. God has created us to take dominion with Him and for Him in His kingdom, to be creative under Him. It is in the heart (spirit or will) that real change must begin. God sends His Word and Spirit to us, and we respond by putting our faith, trust, and confidence in Him, leaning the whole weight of our being in Christ.

As we connect with Christ, we come alive with His abundant, eternal, God kind of life. Our hearts can be good or bad.

The proud heart is hard and unreceptive to God as the good soil is to seed, listening, trusting, and responding to His initiative by sprouting with loving obedience. The spirit that trusts God and is brought to life through faith in Christ by God's Spirit, is well directed in spiritual fervor, rejoicing to overflow with love for God and others, including strangers and enemies.

When Christ lives in us, we cannot do what we used to do, nor do we want to. We cannot use the language we once did, nor can we think about sin in the same way. With our new heart, all we are changed, we become a people after God's own heart!!!

Father, thank You for this day and that You are good and gracious, long-suffering, and tenderhearted toward all Your children. Lord, open the storehouses of Your abundant blessings and rain them down upon us and our family today. Lord, Your never-failing promises to Your people are such a reassurance. Lord, thank You that we are part of Your body and that You have told us the end from the beginning, and thank You that all Your promises are yes and amen. Lord, teach us Your ways and keep us from straying from the path of holiness. Lord, thank You for Your indwelling Holy Spirit of life, who guides us into all truth. Lord, use us to be someone's blessing today.

Father, we love You. Amen !