A New Heart!

As I again heard the depth of discouragement flow from a friend's mouth, it would be easy to join in the darkness. If I saw only from this friend's perspective, it would be easy to join the pity party. Yet the Word of God does not just bring a change but total change in the reality of our living. Ephesians 4:22-25 tells us to put off the old man (which is everything we are connected with sin), not the behavior but the image (which is a deception) of us in sin. As I shared this with my friend, he looked at me like I came from a strange planet. His whole reality had included discouragement, dispair, loneliness, and darkness for many years. When people met Jesus there wasn't a small change in their life but a whole new reality created by a whole new relationship with God. As I shared the reality of the command in Ephesians 4:22-25, commands in the New Covenant are not given for us to accomplish in our own power but by the work of the indwelling Holy Spirit. As the Holy Spirit reveals the Word of God, something deep in us stirs with a new realm of possiblity for living. It was clear that he wanted to believe he could be free but there was fear of disappointment. This is why I am so grateful that faith comes from hearing and hearing by the Word of God. The Word of God is a solid foundation because this is God speaking to His people through divinely inspired writing. As he finally decided to agree with the Word of God my friend took off what he had been wearing for years, he was not the darkness but the darkness was on him. It was more secure to continue to live in this darkness than move into a new realm of living where he didn't know who he was or what his purpose was. As he painfully took off what had met his needs for years, the Lord gave him a picture of a shower which was the Lord cleansing him from all the defilement of years of living in darkness. We continued in our prayer to ask the Lord what my friend could put on in the place of the image of the old man. All of the sudden he said his heart dropped out of his chest, he was shocked. But then the Lord did the most amazing thing, the Lord gave him a new heart (Jesus heart). There was surprise across his face and unbelief. We so think we have to earn, deserve, and sweat for what we get in life. Grace is offensive, beautiful, and a gift. For those skeptical or doubting, the Holy Spirit was simply making real the promise of the New Covenant from Ezekial 36:25-27.


"Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances."

It is still truly amazing that the New Covenant is unilateral (God giving to us) but entering into the world of grace is not an easy journey. We are so used to believing "there are no free lunches" that we are skeptical of God's amazing offer of grace. My continual prayer is that God would teach me how to receive from Him. Moving from an approach of life of "getting" to receiving and then giving is a work only the Holy Spirit can do in and through us.

In His Amazing Grace,
Bret