A New Heart and Spirit

When God restores us to Himself, after we have been separated from Him by our sin, He does a wonderful work in our lives. This was true for Israel when they returned to the land after the exile in Babylon, and it is true when we come to know Jesus as our Lord and Savior today. In fact, what the Lord told Ezekiel to tell us is even more true  today than it was in Ezekiel's day. (Ezekiel 11:19) God promised to give the people of Israel one heart, even though there were many of them. He also promised a new spirit in each of them. The way God did this was to take the hard heart, the heart of stone, out of them, and replace it with a soft heart, a heart of flesh. What a transformation by the hand of the Lord! Then, His people could and would follow Him well.

One of the greatest blessings of being a Christian is having so many brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ who share the same heart with us. We can and do relate to each other on a deeper level than we can relate to others, because of this change of heart. Then, we have a new spirit from the Lord, as well, He gives us His Holy Spirit to reside in our spirit, so we can communicate with God freely. We can talk to Him and hear from Him all of the time. Instead of being stubborn and obstinate, not listening to the Lord, our new heart is very soft. We hear the slightest words from the Lord and our spirit is convicted by the Holy Spirit, so we can confess any sins and repent. That way, we do not get out of fellowship with the Lord  like we did when we had a heart of stone. I pray we will all stop to thank the Lord for our new heart and spirit in Christ, and then, always listen for what our Lord has to say and do it well.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read Ezekiel 13-15.