A new heart
“Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols. And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations. Ezekiel 36:25-27
God is the one who cleanses us from our impurities that cause us to be not focused with God. From the text, the Prophet Ezekiel called out the Israelites on their idolatrous practices that were defiling their hearts. God wanted them to experience a transformation through spiritual regeneration. He will give them a “new heart” and a “new spirit.” No longer living guided by perverse thinking but has the willingness to always respond to God. Ezekiel described this transformation by using the analogy of having a stony heart and turning the heart into a tender and responsive heart. it is from our hearts that we decide to respond to God. The heart is deceiving that it requires the working and cleansing of the Holy Spirit. “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9). David asked God to cleanse him from having rebellious heart and prayed that God will purify his heart and restore him in his fellowship with God (Psalm 51:10). God desires that everyone will love Him with all their hearts (Deuteronomy 6:5). In the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord Jesus Christ declared that those with pure hearts are blessed (Matthew 5:8). When our sin is not addressed it will harden our hearts (Matthew 13:4, 19). It will prevent us to listen to God and His word. When you continue to ignore the conviction coming from the Holy Spirit, you will soon get numb to sin and the more you will be resistant to His word. Has your heart had grown cold towards loving God? it is only by letting His Spirit renew your heart that could help you restore your devotion only to God and not to idols. This is how Paul was able to fight off his struggles in following God wholeheartedly. The only way you can overcome rebelling from God is by allowing the power of the Holy Spirit work in you. “Let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves” (Galatians 5:16).
Blessings,
