April 7, 2009
Heart to Heart
How's your heart? I don't mean your physical heart. I'm talking about the state
of your emotions and inner being.
Is it open and vulnerable or is it cold and hard like stone? Stone hearts are
common. They arise from past hurts or apathy or even extreme self-centeredness.
Sometimes they come from repeated sin when our conscience has been seared.
Sometimes they get hard because we have a goal that drives us and we don't care
what we need to do to reach that goal.
God doesn't want hard hearted people. In fact He wants to remove our hearts of
stone.
Ezekiel 36:24-27 NIV
“`For I will take you out of the
nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your
own land. 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.
This is a multi-part promise. God is telling His people that they will be
dispersed but brought home again. We've seen that happen with the Jewish
Diaspora (when the Jews fled from Israel to all the corners of the world) and
their return to the nation of Israel in 1947.
But it's also a promise for you and I. God's plans have always included the
gentiles. His heart is that people of all nations and backgrounds would be drawn
to Him and restored to a right relationship. He promised to soften the harness
of our hearts. He promised to wash us clean (and Jesus did that for us through
His blood). He promised to fill us with Holy Spirit, something that happens to
every believer.
Every person, no matter what their background has an opportunity to be made
right with God, to be forgiven of their sins and to be filled with Holy Spirit's
power. That's a promise and blessing beyond comprehension and measure.
Hearts of stone are often immune to some forms of pain. They're also immune to
joy. A stone cold heart can't feel the blessing of love. The stone heart might
seem impervious to everything, but it's deeply flawed and cracks. It takes
tremendous energy to keep a heart of stone together. A stone heart constantly
fears breaking so new layers of stone must be added all the time. A stone heart
ironically becomes a bitter and hurting heart. The advantage to keeping out the
pain quickly becomes the self destructive force that causes even more pain in
the long run.
A heart of flesh sometimes brings pain, but the joys and rewards outweigh the
risks and the pain. I'll take a heart that has been hurt on occasion but has
experienced God's love to a cold dead heart any day.
Until next time, rejoice that God has promised to replace your heart of stone
with something alive that can experience His love, blessing and joy.
Under His Wing,
Darrel Mason