Ezekiel 36:25-27
“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 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.”
My pastor was speaking and was actually closing his sermon as he referred to this passage in Ezekiel. Although this really wasn’t what the sermon was about, my heart found this fascinating… God was talking about doing some heart surgery. A transplant in fact.
Verse 26 actually says that “I will remove from you your heart of stone…” God is going to remove my stony, stubborn heart.
“And give you a heart of flesh”
God is going to replace it with a tender, responsive heart.
God is ready to do some major heart surgery on me… the question is, am I going to sign the release papers? Am I ready for it? I wonder if there are stages? I know that this is what God does when a person first comes to know Him as Savior… but then as time goes by, does he do it again and again?
I know in my life I tend to get hard and stubborn… and then God steps in and changes my heart yet again. A few years ago I was on staff at a wonderful Christian Organization and they told me when I signed on that God was going to do some work on my heart. I didn’t believe that it was going to be that intense. God didn’t just move in and do some work… that year felt like open heart surgery without anesthetic. Painful, and hard with agrevating recovery. But it was during the hardness and pain that I learned a lot about myself and then even more so about the grace of God.
What about now? Am I in surgery? God has promised to replace my heart of stone with one of flesh. Tender and responsive to Him and His plan. Obedient and willing to follow His laws. Don’t be deceived this is a painful process.
A heart transplant surgery begins with preparation…having everything ready to go. Cleaning the area and opening it up (which is a process all in itself.) The person receiving the heart is dead on the table between the time that the person’s old heart is taken out and the new one put in place. Then they pump the new heart with their own hands until it awakens and beats on it’s own. Making the dead person alive again.
I believe that the transplant that God is doing seems no less complicated. He cleans you up (vs. 25) Opens your chest and takes out the old heart, leaving you dead in yourself (Eph.2:1) and then gives you the new (Jer.24:7). And massaging it until it beats making you come alive and tender and responsive to His touch.
Recovery for each patient is different and time is needed for healing. Recovery from God’s treatment… well, that is up to you. Choosing and being forced into this surgery are two very different things and recovery is going to be needed. But then again what is recovery? Going back to normal? Being open and ready to follow? Not hurting anymore? Forgetting the pain and ready to proceed?
I guess the choice is yours what recovery looks like to you. If we must then we will have to undergo the surgery again if it doesn’t work the first, second or third time. I believe though that this whole process must be worth it, handing over a heart that hates, lies, deceives, and is rotting away for a heart that loves, and lives.
The grief of change and the pain of transition will mean nothing when replaced by the joy that will come when our hearts beat with the love, blood and life of Jesus!!
M. Ruth Smith
2005
“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 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.”
My pastor was speaking and was actually closing his sermon as he referred to this passage in Ezekiel. Although this really wasn’t what the sermon was about, my heart found this fascinating… God was talking about doing some heart surgery. A transplant in fact.
Verse 26 actually says that “I will remove from you your heart of stone…” God is going to remove my stony, stubborn heart.
“And give you a heart of flesh”
God is going to replace it with a tender, responsive heart.
God is ready to do some major heart surgery on me… the question is, am I going to sign the release papers? Am I ready for it? I wonder if there are stages? I know that this is what God does when a person first comes to know Him as Savior… but then as time goes by, does he do it again and again?
I know in my life I tend to get hard and stubborn… and then God steps in and changes my heart yet again. A few years ago I was on staff at a wonderful Christian Organization and they told me when I signed on that God was going to do some work on my heart. I didn’t believe that it was going to be that intense. God didn’t just move in and do some work… that year felt like open heart surgery without anesthetic. Painful, and hard with agrevating recovery. But it was during the hardness and pain that I learned a lot about myself and then even more so about the grace of God.
What about now? Am I in surgery? God has promised to replace my heart of stone with one of flesh. Tender and responsive to Him and His plan. Obedient and willing to follow His laws. Don’t be deceived this is a painful process.
A heart transplant surgery begins with preparation…having everything ready to go. Cleaning the area and opening it up (which is a process all in itself.) The person receiving the heart is dead on the table between the time that the person’s old heart is taken out and the new one put in place. Then they pump the new heart with their own hands until it awakens and beats on it’s own. Making the dead person alive again.
I believe that the transplant that God is doing seems no less complicated. He cleans you up (vs. 25) Opens your chest and takes out the old heart, leaving you dead in yourself (Eph.2:1) and then gives you the new (Jer.24:7). And massaging it until it beats making you come alive and tender and responsive to His touch.
Recovery for each patient is different and time is needed for healing. Recovery from God’s treatment… well, that is up to you. Choosing and being forced into this surgery are two very different things and recovery is going to be needed. But then again what is recovery? Going back to normal? Being open and ready to follow? Not hurting anymore? Forgetting the pain and ready to proceed?
I guess the choice is yours what recovery looks like to you. If we must then we will have to undergo the surgery again if it doesn’t work the first, second or third time. I believe though that this whole process must be worth it, handing over a heart that hates, lies, deceives, and is rotting away for a heart that loves, and lives.
The grief of change and the pain of transition will mean nothing when replaced by the joy that will come when our hearts beat with the love, blood and life of Jesus!!
M. Ruth Smith
2005
No comments:
Post a Comment