#TuesdayTruth Ezekiel 36:26-27

Ezekiel 36:26-27

“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.”

So often, we can get caught up in the need to do the work that we see is required in order to achieve a goal. Now, there is nothing at all wrong with working hard to accomplish something. Since this is a gym, after all, a simple example is working toward getting better/stronger at some lift.

Let’s say that you want to be able to deadlift more weight with good form. What do you do? You get on a program where you practice deadlifts. You do the work and build in weight over time, and this leads you to accomplish the goal you originally set forth.

What strikes us here is how God’s sequence/timing is SO different from ours. That heart of stone could have really weighed us down, but He offers to give us a new heart and a new spirit. Instead of expecting us to do the work to “earn” a new heart or a new spirit, God GIVES us His Spirit so that we will be able to do the good works He has for us.

How kind is our God! How compassionate! How loving!

Our Father God knows that strive as we may, we could NEVER “earn” what we truly need. It always had to be a gift. There was no possible way for us to work up to being worthy. So he flips the whole thing and no longer do we see “A + B = C.” Instead, He just gives us “C” out of His kindness and generosity, which enables us to go and do “A” and “B.”

Heavenly Father,

Thank you for replacing our hearts of stone and giving us a new heart and your Spirit. Thank you that this is not something that we have to try to earn. Thank you that it, instead, is a gift from you and it allows us the ability to follow you more closely.

We love You Father, Amen.