"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."
All of us at one time or another resolve to turn over a new leaf. We want a chance to start over - to make a new start. Soon after we make our resolutions we are depressed and defeated when we realize that although we've turned over a new leaf - it's just another page in the same old book. Our "I wills" aren't enough. How many times have we said, "I will never ..." or "I will always ..." only to find out that saying and doing are sometimes miles apart - parallel lines that never meet.
Read Ezekiel's message. Here we find God's resolution - His firm purpose. Here we see how God makes it possible for us to truly start again. Three times the Lord declares, "I will" and God cannot lie. What He proposes will be done. "I will give you a new heart." Now, the heart is the center of our personality attributes and emotions; the heart is our innermost nature. God promises a new heart or a change from the inside out!
He says He'll take away our heart of stone. Stone is hard, dead and cold. How often have you felt hard, dead or cold on the inside? You may have tried to pray but before you even began, the coldness and deadness seemed to overpower you. God will remove it. You can't do God's work for Him - trust Him to work.
The Lord said he would put His Spirit in us, His Holy Spirit. Here He is promising us supernatural power. His Spirit will cause us to follow His laws and decrees. What are His decrees? Jesus tells us in Matthew 22:37-40. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
Love! We cannot will it to be. Try to love what you don't and you'll see what I mean. Our own willpower is not enough. We need the new heart and spirit, the change from the inside out, the supernatural power of God to keep his commandments of love.
This says a lot about our hearts/natures apart from God. Apart from Him and His power we will continually fail, wound and be wounded. God would not do a work that was unnecessary. If He says He will give us a new heart, it's because we need one. If He says He will put His Spirit in us to move us - we need moving!
Thought for Today:
Lord, today I lay aside my "I wills" and trust in yours. I trust in your resolutions for me and I rejoice in your plan for me. Help me to be sensitive to your Spirit that moves in me - to lead me in your ways.