Ezekiel 36:24-28
“For here’s what I’m going to do: I’m going to take you out of these countries, gather you from all over, and bring you back to your own land. I’ll pour pure water over you and scrub you clean. I’ll give you a new heart, put a new spirit in you. I’ll remove the stone heart from your body and replace it with a heart that’s God-willed, not self-willed. I’ll put my Spirit in you and make it possible for you to do what I tell you and live by my commands. You’ll once again live in the land I gave your ancestors. You’ll be my people! I’ll be your God!”
“For I will gather you up from all the nations and bring you home again to your land. 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. And you will live in Israel, the land I gave your ancestors long ago. You will be my people, and I will be your God.”
This is a promise to hang one’s life upon. God has given me a God-willed, not self-willed heart. Now it is possible to do what he tells me. I struggle to stay under the promise. Imagine what it was like to live without it as the people of Ezekiel’s time. Their obedience came entirely from their own will. But I have a new heart to help my will along. I have been given much and I feel the weight of that responsibility.
Lord, you have given me many things, even a new heart. Help me to live like it, testifying to your good news, power to heal and desire to redeem.