2004-11-05
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Last week, I began writing about how God changes the sinful human heart. We know from EZK 36: 26-27 that God promised Israel a new heart at the time she was in exile. You’ll remember that Ezekiel was the prophet and leader of a group of Israelite exiles in the Chabar River area near the Euphrates River in Babylonia. Before asking what this has to do with modern day Gentiles, we must remember that in RO 11: 16-24 believing Gentiles were “in-grafted” to believing Jews to make up the Body of Christ, in a metaphor described as the joining of the wild olive branches to the cultured olive tree. All the members of the Body of Christ are held equal and have the same rights and responsibilities, without one being more important than another [RO 12: 4-6a]. RO 2: 29 speaks of the “circumcised heart” as being the work of God’s Spirit and not of the His written Law. The person having this heart receives his praise from God and not from man. Essential to this heart is the realization that without God, will live in a condition of spiritual poverty. God gives assurance of His blessing to those who have understanding in MT 5: 3.
Think about it. When God changes our hearts of stone and stubbornness to ones which are compliant with His teaching, we are set free from slavery to sin and death by the Spirit, Who places us in union with Jesus Christ [RO 8: 2]. After hearing the truth, we believe it, and God puts His stamp of ownership on us [EPH 1: 13]. The way we know this is that He gives us the Holy Spirit to indwell in us.
I asked myself after looking at all of this information about what God has done in my own life, “What does this actually mean to me on a practical level?” Years ago before learning that I could have a different heart, I was sullen, angry, and disrespectful most of the time. My life was filled with misbehavior, running my mouth at various authority figures in my life, disrespect of my parents, doing vandalism, befriending the wrong people, and over eating to compensate for feelings of worthlessness. I couldn’t see a way out of this prison, so I felt caught in a trap of hopelessness. I was always a good student, but not a good friend. God knew I would have to go through a lot of trouble in my life and find a way to wade through it, before He could chip away at my foolishness and bring me to the life I have today. We often hear about how God allows us to come to the end of ourselves before we are in a condition to find Him and listen to Him. We have to recognize our own spiritual poverty. In my case, I had to learn how not to be self-centered and arrogant. The Lord may allow our spirits to be bent, but He won’t allow them to be broken.
My conversion to Christ came over a period of time. As you already know, I spent 12 years in the Mormon church trying to find God. At the end of that time, God allowed me to know that His word had to come before any rights or rituals that a denomination might practice. Those years weren’t wasted. For the first time, I got a bird’s eye view of what a happy, loving, wholesome family life was, even though I didn’t have it for myself until the last two years of that time. The next step was to finally take the time to fall in love with the word of God by not only studying it, but letting it sink into my heart. For the first time, I really began to open my heart to the Holy Spirit. By the time I was in my forties, I became aware of God’s call to me to serve Him in ministry. I had been through a divorce, temporarily losing custody of my son, and remarriage to my husband, Peter. Peter saw a change in my behavior, as God replaced my deep anger with His love and perspective on the challenges of my life. I became calmer and saw my challenges against the backdrop of God’s perspective and encouragement that the Scriptures gives us. My story isn’t over. God is still at work in the heart of this sinner. Perfection eludes me. But, I don’t feel the sense of hopelessness or worthlessness that I had in the past. Instead, God has transformed my heart to fill it with the desire to be His faithful servant and friend. He has made me a “new creation” [2 COR 5: 17] and given me the hope of the resurrection and eternal life with Him. For what more could I ask? For what more could any of us ask?
PRAYER: O Lord, as believing sinners, we stand before Your mighty throne to acknowledge Your great power and accept the blessings You so are so eager to give us. We are learning through working through the challenges of our lives what a privilege it is to have Your stamp of ownership upon us. Repeatedly, You have stated Your will that we should declare You our One and Only God. Then You would claim us as Your people. You are writing Your laws upon our hearts, so that You can bring us back to Your side for eternity [EX 6: 7; EX 19:5; DT 6: 4-9; DT 11: 13-22; IS 49: 6; JER 31: 31-34; EZK 11: 19-20; EZK 36: 28-29a; JN 6: 39-40; 1 COR 11: 23-26; GA 3: 9; REV 21: 3]. You and You alone have the awesome power that can chisel away at the sinful deceit of the human heart that Satan has brought about. You and You alone are the Source of goodness and the other fruits of the Spirit [PS 16: 2; GA 5: 22-23]. We don’t always make it easy for You, but Your love extends to not giving up on those of us who will learn to listen for Your will for our lives. To that end, we recite PS 36: 9-10, which gives us insight into Your love for us. “For You are the Fountain of life; our light is from Your light. Pour out Your unfailing love on those who know You! Never stop giving Your salvation to those who long to do Your will.” You have told us in JER 33: 3, “Call to Me and I will answer you and tell You great and unsearchable things you do not know.” Your wisdom is so much greater than ours can ever be, but You are willing to share some of it with us-the part of it we most need to have. The Psalmist in PS 145: 5 says, “I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty, and on Your wondrous works.” That approach can yield food for our souls, so we dedicate ourselves to taking it. You have told us that we can approach Your throne boldly to make our requests and concerns known, knowing that Your mercy, compassion, and help is available to us [EPH 3: 12; PS 9: 10; IS 46: 1]. Kenneth Haugk in his book, Christian Caregiving, makes a statement that beautifully summarizes how You work through Your Son. “Jesus Christ does not stand on the sidelines waiting for to use the right signal words for Him to step in and be there [when we’re in trouble]. Rather, He is already in the middle of the situation. He’s only waiting for us to see that.” You have held nothing back from us, not even Your own Son, Who died on the cross so we who would listen to You could be saved [RO 8: 31-32]. And so, Dearest Abba, we close this prayer with PS 79: 13, which reveals our hearts. “So we Thy people and the sheep of Thy pasture will give thanks to Thee forever, to all generations we tell of Thy praise.” In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.
I feel so very grateful that the Holy Spirit keeps giving me messages to share with you each week. Next week, I’m directed to discuss looking at this transformation of the human heart in light of Christ’s Sermon on the Mount teaching about the Law in MT 5: 17-20. In the meanwhile, we can all meditate on the love that God has for us and how it is manifested in our own lives. Doing this is no waste of time. It’s sometimes hard at first, because we are not nearly as well-practiced in looking at our blessings as we are at our trials. However, we all need to get practice in looking at what God is to us and does for us, so that we can gain a fuller appreciation of the truth of His magnificence. Our Father, through His Son Jesus Christ, is the only One who can fill our real needs and make our hearts what He always intended for them to be-not hearts of stone, but loving and faithful hearts. PS 31: 3-4, “You are indeed my Rock and my Fortress; for Your name’s sake lead me and guide me, take me out of the net that is hidden for me, for You are my Refuge.” Our lives are not easy here on earth; they are filled with temptation, loss, pain, and sorrow. But our loving God allows these challenges, so that we can build strength and endurance through working through them [RO 5: 3-4]. This is His way of giving us hope and perfecting us, so that we can live in eternal bliss and fellowship with Him. His love for us can’t be measured and is unparalleled. O, what a blessed people we truly are!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn