Ezekiel 36: 26-27
“And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations.”
Following Christ isn’t about following a set of rules and regulations. But when we do decide to follow him, at some point we’ll start feeling, as my pastor says, the “Want To.” I want to do what is good; I want to do what is pleasing to God. I want to stop doing sinful things and start doing things that glorify God. Does that happen all at once? Does God wave a magic wand over us and *POOF* we begin to live spotless lives? No way. But it starts a little at a time, and it grows. Sometimes that “want to” and the spiritual growth that accompanies it happens fast, but at other times it’s pretty slow. Hopefully, though, we don’t let it stop altogether and become stagnant, stinky Christians.
God doesn’t just teach us how to act. True, he gives us some pretty good guidelines of what to do and what not to do in the Bible. But following him isn’t about rules and new habits. Developing good habits doesn’t change our hearts. God, however, does just that - he changes our hearts. Before I became a Christ-follower, I had a stubborn heart of stone. A hard heart. Hard, stubborn hearts can’t do much good. But then he gave me a heart transplant, and now I have a beautiful, responsive heart, capable of much love. Capable of learning what God wants to teach me. Along with that heart transplant, God gave me something extra - a really big, amazing something extra. He put his Spirit into me!!! That makes all the difference! Having God’s Spirit in me allows me to follow his rules. It’s what gives me the “want to.” I still have a long way to go before he’s done with me, but I’m growing; I’m changing bit by bit, from the inside out.
I’m using another verse here that I could have made a whole post about, but that wonderfully helpful Holy Spirit gave me this one to go along with the above verse. I think I will write this up all pretty and stick it on my bulletin board by my computer as a daily prayer. I am modifying it a bit to personalize it for me, but you can find Paul’s original prayer in Philippians 1:9-11.
God doesn’t just teach us how to act. True, he gives us some pretty good guidelines of what to do and what not to do in the Bible. But following him isn’t about rules and new habits. Developing good habits doesn’t change our hearts. God, however, does just that - he changes our hearts. Before I became a Christ-follower, I had a stubborn heart of stone. A hard heart. Hard, stubborn hearts can’t do much good. But then he gave me a heart transplant, and now I have a beautiful, responsive heart, capable of much love. Capable of learning what God wants to teach me. Along with that heart transplant, God gave me something extra - a really big, amazing something extra. He put his Spirit into me!!! That makes all the difference! Having God’s Spirit in me allows me to follow his rules. It’s what gives me the “want to.” I still have a long way to go before he’s done with me, but I’m growing; I’m changing bit by bit, from the inside out.
I’m using another verse here that I could have made a whole post about, but that wonderfully helpful Holy Spirit gave me this one to go along with the above verse. I think I will write this up all pretty and stick it on my bulletin board by my computer as a daily prayer. I am modifying it a bit to personalize it for me, but you can find Paul’s original prayer in Philippians 1:9-11.
“May my love overflow more and more, and may I keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. For I want to understand what really matters, so that I may live a pure and blameless life until the day of Christ’s return. May I be filled with the fruit of your salvation — the righteous character produced in my life by Jesus Christ —for this will bring much glory and praise to God.” Amen!
