by Jordyn van Gaalen

Breaking Through Walls

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking this SoundCloud link.

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 (New International Version)

There have been plenty of moments in my life where I can very much relate to a “heart of stone.” My emotions, my compassion, and my sincerity can become so hardened. Bitterness and stubbornness and my wayward focus change my heart. Something gets planted inside me, something not of God, when those emotions and my sin take root. I put my arms out at length in defense. I build unhealthy walls around my heart. I turn a deaf ear to the voice of God.

God alone can and will break through our hearts of stone.

God promises to remove that heart of stone. He will take away that sin-filled heart and replace it with a heart of flesh. 

Flesh is tender, soft, pliable. Those characteristics are intended to be left in the hands of God, who forms and shapes us. A heart of flesh is open to God’s voice and His deep stirrings. A heart of flesh is repentant in nature, desiring to obey His commands, and fully surrendering to grace. It is a prayer of “Break my heart for what breaks yours, Lord.”

Those characteristics are not easy and they are not capable of achievement on our own. But God promises that He will put His Spirit in us. We will be filled with compassion and with the Holy Spirit. We will be reaching out to grace with open arms.

“You will be my people, and I will be your God.”
Ezekiel 36:28 NIV

One day we will leave this life in its entirety and come home to our Father. One day our heart of flesh will be one of permanence. God’s great love will always prevail.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado