Monday 5 January

Living with a New Heart

Scripture Reference:

Ezekiel 36:25-27

²⁵ I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. ²⁶ 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. ²⁷ And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

Psalm 51:10

Create in me a pure heart, O God,
    and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Organ transplants are a remarkable modern-day advancement in medicine. It is incredible that someone could have their diseased heart removed and a healthy heart transplanted from someone else’s body. However, there is no guarantee that a person will be different after a physical transplant. If they were selfish and prideful, for example, with their old heart, they may continue to live the same way, even with the new transplanted heart. 

Through Ezekiel, however, God promises to give us a new heart that will enable us to live a transformed life. A heart that grieves and repents from sin. A heart that gives strength to forsake all idols in our lives. A heart that seeks after the presence of God.  It is life-changing indeed. 

We must note that there’s a cost involved in a heart transplant. It means that someone has died, and their heart is available to be donated. The spiritual heart transplant incurred the same cost. The new heart God promises to give us is only possible because of the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross. He took our sin on His body so we may have a clean new heart. God Himself paid a high price for the new heart that is available to us.