A New Heart
“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.”
—Ezekiel 36:26 (NIV)
We desperately need God to give us a new heart. It is no good to pile religious striving on top of a stony heart! Ultimately, we are no better off to pursue a lifetime of religious performance than to have forsaken it altogether. I recognize that is a bold statement, but it’s foundational to a life of abiding. Until we acknowledge that our striving is totally useless apart from a new heart, we won’t desire the gift of renewal that God gives.
Listen to what the writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews 9:14 NASB, “How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” These “dead works” refer not just to the sin that entangles us but to the life of religious toil. Marred by a conscience that condemns, religiosity promises redemption through penance. Christ offers redemption through surrender and transformation.
I have great admiration for the work of religion—even the distinctive expressions of Christianity through many different denominations uniquely reveal the glory of God. Still, a denomination cannot save. A great church can provide the context for transformation, but only God can remove the heart of stone and give it a heart of flesh.
This is truly what we desire. Striving only increases the density of a stubborn heart. Surrender to the living God keeps the heart tender and responsive. Living in freedom requires the believer to enter the unseen realm. It compels us to find a source of refuge and strength not quantified in human languages. To live in the way of the new heart requires a sort of abandonment of the way of the stone heart.
Religion is good when it points us to the unseen God. It fails us when it promises a path to self-righteousness. The stone heart drifts farther away from pure desires; the tender heart beats with the life of the Holy Spirit. Which do you desire?
I consider that it is very easy to fill our minds with Christian truth without leaning into prayer, meditation, and surrender. I invite you today to pause and seek the Lord. Perhaps this is a moment of quietness that feels mundane and inconsequential. Maybe it is something more. Either way, it is better to live from a place of humble surrender than persistent striving.
God, give us new hearts today.
