Out With the Old

This morning, my Sabbath school lesson sent me to those familiar verses in Ezekiel 36:26, 27.  They struck me to the core with the beautiful love and creative power of our Savior.  Will you read them with me today?

"A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you..."

Wait a minute.  Have you ever been tempted to think that your desires for things that aren't good for you, aren't what God wants for you, will never go away?  That the struggle against temptations will not only never go away, but also never get easier?

But what if we really accept this promised new heart by faith?  Will our desires change then?  Or do we fight so much because we like to live from the heart we've always had, the one that always gets us into selfish messes of trouble?

"...and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh..."

How many times do we joyfully take the new heart, but keep the stony heart right near by?  It's deathly, to be sure, to have a physical heart as hard as stone, but even more so a spiritual heart as hard as the rocks you don't want in your garden.  We're accustomed to it, though, and we like familiarity.  We don't let God take away the stony heart.

But think for a second if we did....What would be the result?  What would it be like to let Jesus take away that stony heart, to start living out of the new one He makes for us?  Do you think maybe our desires would even begin to change?

"And I will put My Spirit in you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments, and do them."

You see, the God I serve not only expects amazing things from my life, but also make double provision for me to make a success of right and glorious living.  As if an entirely new heart and spirit (think attitude) were not enough, He also gives HIS Spirit, to make sure that new heart and spirit He puts within me are still working properly.

Because He wants me to live well.  He wants me to live happily without devastating things in my life like becoming a murderer or a thief (think His law).  He wants me to be a beautiful and joyful success story in my life sphere in this world, and be prepared to desire the absolute perfection of the mansion He's preparing for me.

(I know I just posted a photo of a daffodil recently.  But THESE are new and beautiful and I couldn't resist.)