It is our goal to have a new heart so that we can become more like God. This devotional reading looks at how sanctifying that new heart is hindered by the stone in our hearts.
Nuggets
- Getting a new heart is a requirement for all disciples.
- We take detours on the Sanctification Road when we allow the stone in our hearts to freeze out God.
The title for today’s devotion came from Boston’s words. I’m not sure they are what I would have chosen.
When we think about getting religion, we exercise our choice in only two ways. Either we change our nature, or we keep our stony heart.
The problem rises when we choose to believe in God but also choose to keep our stony hearts.
Let's Put It into Context
To read devotions in the Habitual Holiness of Heart and Life theme, click the button below.
Here is a running list of nuggets for the theme.
Devotions in the Outward and Inward Religion study
Here is a running list of nuggets for the study.
We are using Boston’s sermon as the foundation for this series.
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Change of Nature
“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)
Getting a new heart is a requirement for all disciples.
Really, the change that God accomplishes in us is simple. Breay explained it to us. He wrote, “The love of sin is now destroyed, as well as the guilt of it taken away.”
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Simple, right? Well, maybe the concept of it is.
Accomplishing that is going to take time and work. God doesn’t flip a switch and make that happen.
Instead, we go through the process of sanctification. Sanctification is the transformational process of the 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.
- Regeneration is being changed from spiritually dead to spiritually alive and the internal new birth and requickening 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.
- Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
- 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.
Glossary
Why does it take so long? It is a process of purification. “that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5: 26-27 ESV).
Changing our sinful nature to something spotless and holy isn’t going to be an overnight process.
This is especially true when we realize that becoming rooted is taking away our love of sin. It is an inward process rather than an outward process.
It would be one thing just to change our thoughts and actions. It is something else to change our desires.
To do this, we need to be regenerated. We can think of this counteracting the original sin.
This inward transformation must take place. We can’t be satisfied with only changing our outward being.
We have to realize, though, that as the process begins from within – and it is a process – it is going to take a while for worldview people to see the total effect of the change. When they say they don’t see us imitating Christ, it is because we are a work in progress – or they are looking at it the wrong way.
Our old spirit is substituted with the mind of Christ. Having the mind of Christ means we have the same attitude as Jesus.
Spurgeon makes a great observation. The “… I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh …” comes after the “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you …” (Ezek. 36: 26 ESV).
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Getting a new heart and spirit isn’t a process. Getting rid of our heart of stone is.
Our part is choosing for this transformation to take place. Then, we have to be willing to follow God’s Will and walk in the Spirit.
Will this be a 100% perfect-in-the-Spirit deal? No, we will still sin, unfortunately. But we can ask forgiveness when we do.
The wonderful thing is that God promises this transformation to everyone who believe in Jesus as our Savior and Redeemer and submits to Him. He doesn’t offer this promise only to a select few.
A Stony Heart
“Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away” (Mt. 13: 5-6 ESV)
“As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away” (Mt. 13: 20-21 ESV)
We take detours on the Sanctification Road when we allow the stone in our hearts to freeze out God.
Ezekiel said that God has to remove the stone from our heart. God has to take our unclean and idolatrous nature and make us more like Him.
Yep, our hearts are cold as stones. But I think it is more fundamental than that.
Jeremiah told us that. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jer. 17: 9 KJV).
While this healing process of sanctification is for everyone, it takes more work for some of us.
I know. We are looking at these verses in Matthew again, but they tell us why there are differences.
The stone in our hearts force our focus off God.
Let’s run at it from another angle. The ones who are listening to God’s Word accept it. In fact, Jesus said they received it with joy.
The problem is that the stony heart remains. Keach gave us several different reasons why that happened.
- The presence of sin still within our hearts chokes out what joy we receive from God.
- We don’t warm up to God.
- Because our hearts are heavy, we do not warm up to God as we should.
- We shy away from the difficult times in our lives, losing the opportunity for Him to fill us with joy.
- It takes a lot to soften our hearts.
- The stony ground is a path to sin.
- The lack of fruit shows that the soil is defective.
- We have to watch too much of a good thing.
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We don’t want our hearts to remain one of stone. The only way that we grow is if we nurture the seed within us.
Let’s look at it this way. We look at the stone within our hearts as sin. God does remove that from our hearts.
But let us look at it another way. What if our attitude is the stone? Our attitude toward God when evil exists is one of cold.
In the process of sanctification, God is changing our attitude.
If our attitudes do not change, our hearts will go harder and harder. Why? Our hearts are Satan’s throne when they are not focused on God.
Isn’t that what we were saying when we talked about having the mind of Christ?
By changing our attitude to the mind of Christ, we soften our hearts. That helps us direct our lives.
Making the Connections
Breay had a great description of what becoming a new creation means. He wrote, “Melted by the love of Christ, he grieves over sin; he hates himself on account of it, and both prays and strives against it. A wrong temper causes him more sorrow now, than cursing or drunkenness did in former days. In short, old things are passed away, all things are become new.”
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Only God can accomplish this in our lives. We can’t do it by ourselves.
How Do We Apply This?
- Struggle against the desire to continue to sin.
- Turn away from sin.
- Carefully and passionately listen to the Pastor Steve-types preaching God’s Word.
- Get God’s Word to the heart level and receive it with joy.
- Endure in our believing, not giving up halfway.
- Join a church of like-minded believers.
- Follow God’s laws and commandments.
- Spend time with God in prayer.
Resources
Father God. We come to You asking that You remove the stone within our hearts. We choose to follow You. Sanctify us so that we can become more like You. Amen.
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
What do you think?
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