Day 10 - Heart Transplant

SCRIPTURE:

Ezekiel 36:24-28

“For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God.”

DEVOTIONAL:

This passage of scripture is well known and has empowered many with new hope, and refreshed purpose.

What transformed me: Though this scripture is a message to the ancient Israelites, it rings true throughout the ages. Like Israel, we have been separated from God. We are distant and lost.

God finds us in our lostness and transforms us in four powerful ways.

1. He gathers us. God goes out and brings us back to a place of protection and blessing. We now have a home and the joy of belonging.

2. He cleanses us. The paths that take us far from God also take us through sinful, broken and messy places. We need cleansing.

3. He gives us a new heart. My creator removes a hardened selfish heart; the kind I was never intended to have. It’s a heart that had no real life in it. I am given a new heart, the kind that beats in rhythm with my God and is alive and surging with the blood of eternal life!

4. He gives us a new spirit. My spirit is renewed and I’m given the very Spirit of God. (Read 1 Cor. 2 for more  on the communion of the Spirit).

The benefit to these four transformations is the power to walk on the ancient paths of God’s laws with a new identity, new heart and new spirit!