After conversion, God gives us a new heart. This daily devotional looks at who changes our hearts and why along with the struggles we will endure.
Nuggets
- God is the only one Who can change our heart.
- Our hearts are changed from an unclean heart to a clean heart.
- There will be struggles between our old hearts and our new hearts that we will have to endure.
Devotions in the From a Wrong Heart to a Right Heart series
In the From a Wrong Heart to a Right Heart series, we have been talking about stony hearts and hearts of flesh to conversion. The foundation of this series is a verse in Ezekiel.
“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezek. 36: 26 ESV)
We’ve progressed from being totally against the promptings of the Holy Spirit (the stony heart) to beginning to see that we are sinners and in need of a Savior (heart of flesh) to asking God to be our Sovereign God (conversion).
The next step after conversion is how we are changed. These concepts can confuse some, too.
Let’s try to make sense of them.
Let's Put It into Context #1
Here is a running list of what we’ve discussed previously.
Let's Put It into Context #2
- A heart of stone is a soul without faith in God.
- A heart of flesh convicts us of sin because it possesses a tenderness which identifies the sin as wrong.
- Conversion is when a sinner ABCDs in order to mend their sinful ways to follow God, changing hearts and habits.
How Do We Get a Heart that Is Right?
“I will give them a heart to know that I am the LORD, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart” (Jer. 24: 7 ESV)
God is the only one Who can change our heart.
Before God enters our hearts, they are full of evil, a.k.a. sin. We follow the devil’s promptings, even when we may not recognize it.
We need God to change our hearts. He is the only one who can.
How can that be?
Look at the verse in Ezekiel. Three times, it says the word I.
- “And I will give you …” (Ezek. 36: 26 ESV)
- “… I will put within you …” (Ezek. 36: 26 ESV)
- “… And I will remove …” (Ezek. 36: 26 ESV)
It is all God’s doing.
Well, the doctrine that God is putting in our new hearts is His. They are His law and commandments.
This goes back to what we were saying in the self-discipline theme. Way back when we were doing What Does It Mean to Walk in the Spirit?, we talked about we can’t change ourselves without God.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
If our hearts are to be changed, it must be as Stratten said. He wrote, “You must receive it as the gift of Divine power — as the operation of Divine love — as the creation of God’s mercy.”
Resource
If we have the faith to believe that God can and will forgive us of our sins when we believe that Jesus is our Savior, He will change our hearts when He regenerated us. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (II Cor. 5: 17 ESV).
The Nature of the Changed Heart
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (Ps. 51: 10 ESV)
Our hearts are changed from an unclean heart to a clean heart.
At conversion, God cleanses our hearts. He regenerates it.
Regeneration is being changed from spiritually dead to spiritually alive and the internal requickening in us that God brings about through the work of the Holy Spirit to give us new character.
- Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
- The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Glossary
This new heart recognizes the sin we have committed, and it will plead guilty.
Sin has polluted us. Sins are actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
- Sanctified means to be set free from sin.
- Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
- Pure means not being sinful or having the stain of sin.
- Virtues are standards of moral excellence.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
Glossary
Talmage brought up a good point. He wrote, “Our hands may be clean as water can wash them, and our garments as white as snow; and yet our inward nature be polluted.”
Resource
The new heart is different from the heart of stone and even the heart of flesh. It is no longer stone-cold dead.
The new heart continues to be sorrowful of sin. However, it steers clear of the sin, even the little sins.
We don’t want to sin against God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Spurgeon said we retreat from sin “… not only because [we are] afraid of the punishment, but because [we are] wounded by the sin itself.”
Resource
We have to hate sin as God does and hate our commission of sins.
The other thing we have to do is love, especially other children of God.
Glossary
Spurgeon reminded us that this is where grace begins. We have to remember this grace is a gift from God. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Eph. 2: 8 ESV).
Resource
When we try to change ourselves, we work only on the outside. Grace works on the inside.
A true change of heart is from the inside out.
The Struggle in Our New Hearts
“But the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Mt. 24: 13 ESV)
There will be struggles between our old hearts and our new hearts that we will have to endure.
Don’t be mistaken. It is still going to be a struggle after we receive our new heart. Our spiritual nature is going to struggle against our human nature.
We know that we through God will be victorious in the end. “For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith” (I Jn. 5: 4 ESV).
It all comes down to how we walk with God. “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Mic. 6: 8 ESV).
Walking is the term used to describe how we live our lives. Walking with God means we are humble, reverent, teachable servants of God.
We have to remember that God doesn’t make us walk with Him. We still have our free will. Free will is the ability within us to make decisions, which determine actions that produce character.
Oh, yes. We will have to pay the consequences if we choose not to follow God.
But it is our choice.
What God does is frees us from the consequences of sin. The consequences of sin are spiritual death and separation from God.
M’Culloch reminded us that our walk with God takes diligence. When we navigate the Sanctification Road, we want to continue to enlarge our rings so that we become closer to Him.
Resource
Sanctification is the transformation of mind, body, and soul, which begins with regeneration, gradually changes our nature and morals through the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and ends with perfected state of spiritual wholeness or completeness.
Glossary
Making the Connections
Findley did a good recap for us. How is our new heart different from the old?
How Do We Apply This?
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Father God. Grace and faith are gifts from You. You use these gifts to call us to You. When we admit that we have sinned and need Jesus as our Savior, you change our hearts. Lord, we pray that through sanctification You will change every aspect of us to be like You. Amen.
What do you think?
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