I am a recipient of the promise of God found in Ezekiel 36:26: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” [HCSB]
Fifty years ago this August, I surrendered my life to the personal care of Christ Jesus my LORD and Savior. It was the best and greatest decision I have ever made. In that moment, God took my stony heart, set in rebellion against Him, and changed it to a heart of flesh capable of loving Him and desiring to serve Him.
While I was given that heart of flesh, I still must guard against things that pose risks to my spiritual heart. One such risk is found in the Book of Hebrews. “As the Holy Spirit says: Today if you hear His voice do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” [3:8, 3:15, 4:7 HCSB]
We can harden our hearts when we are shown God’s truth and refuse to accept it. We can harden our hearts when we hear God tell us to do something, and we do not do it. We can harden our hearts when the Holy Spirit checks an attitude in us and we fail to heed His warning.
Every time we reject or ignore or disobey, we run the risk of hardening a part of our heart. Do that often enough and we can grow deaf to the voice of God.
The only way to soften that hardened part of our heart is to repent and allow the forgiveness of God to flood our heart, bringing back the tenderness to God that once was there.
Wouldn’t it be ironic if we allowed that beautiful heart of flesh given us by God to be hardened once again because we failed to heed Him?