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Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Creating a New Heart {Ezekiel 6:1-11:25}



July 31, 2018


"For we are God's masterpiece.  He created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do good things he planned for us long ago."  Ephesians 2:10


When we are born, our parents take care of us and teach us.  We become a version of them.  We are a blank slate and our parents help shape us into who we are.  

As believers in Christ, we are part of another family.  When we commit ourselves to God, we offer up all that we were so that we can be remade.  Once we become His, God does just that – He remakes us so that we become a version of Him.

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Here in Ezekiel 11, God is addressing His people – promising to one day restore them to the land and to a right relationship with Himself.  But we see that we cannot return to the land until our heart is undivided.  When we receive a new heart, we become obedient to God.  God slowly chisels away at our sin and makes us into Him.


As believers, we behave differently.  The human heart was created to mirror God’s own heart (Genesis 1:27, James 3:9).  We are designed to love Him, love righteousness, and walk in harmony with God and others (Micah 6:8).  But by God’s design, we have free will and that allows us to abuse our heart, just as Adam and Eve did (Genesis 3:11).  God desires that we love and serve Him.  When we refuse to follow God, our hearts become hard – like stone.  And a heart of stone finds it impossible to repent, to love God or to please Him, (Romans 8:8).

A person with a hard heart cannot even seek God on their own (Romans 3:11), which is why Jesus said no one can come to Him unless the Fathers first draws him (John 6:14).  

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