Bible Passage: “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” (Ezekiel 36:26-27 ESV)
Scripture Reading: Proverbs 28:14; Psalm 95:8-9; Ephesians 4:32
To my brothers,
I’ll never forget the way some of you looked at me—as if I had three heads—when I first started asking you about how your heart was. Those early days were funny.
As you matured in the Lord, one of the things that has brought me the most joy is watching the Holy Spirit soften your hearts over time.
One of the most incredible prophetic promises in the Old Testament is the Lord’s declaration in today’s passage that He’ll remove His people’s heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh.
Before you knew the Lord, the reality was that your heart was hardened, which led to your ignorance and alienation from the life of God, as Paul describes in Ephesians 4:17. Throughout Scripture, you’ll find that a hardened heart is the root of most of what caused the Lord to be displeased with His people.
When Israel wandered in the wilderness, Psalm 95:8-9 tells us that the LORD rejected the generation that hardened their hearts to Him. Similarly, Jesus rebuked His disciples for hard hearts even after they’d witnessed miracles (e.g., Mark 8:17).
The truth is that men who harden their hearts to the Lord will fall into calamity (Proverbs 28:14).
Scripture’s warnings against hard hearts should leave us with tremendous gratitude that the Lord Himself promises to give us a tender heart that’s responsive and sensitive to Him. We can’t connect with or even please Him unless we have a heart that’s tender to Him.
Of course, only the Holy Spirit can give us this heart of flesh, yet the Word also commands us to cultivate a tender heart (Ephesians 4:32; 1 Peter 3:8).
So, here’s the deal—He’s given you a heart of flesh as the Holy Spirit works in you, yet it’s also on you to continue cultivating and maintaining the tenderness of heart that’s critical to your walk with Him.
Fight to keep your hearts tender, my brothers.
Prayer: Lord, thank You for fulfilling Your promise to me to replace my heart of stone with a tender heart that’s sensitive and responsive to You. I’m so grateful for the work of Your Holy Spirit. I pray that you teach me to continue stewarding my heart and maintaining a sense of tender sensitivity to Your Word and Spirit. Amen.
Reflection: How has the Lord removed your heart of stone and replaced it with a heart of flesh? What parts of your heart do you think are still hardened to the Lord? What do you need to do to cultivate and maintain tenderness in these parts of your heart?
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