Heart Surgery
“‘“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. 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. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.”‘”
Today’s Text: Ezekiel 36:16-31 (Living Life Daily Devotional)
What we need is heart surgery, and God is the surgeon. We need to be cleansed with holy water to prevent infection from the sins of the flesh. The holy water is the blood of Christ that washes away all our sins.
We need God to remove the heart of stone that is in us. Our hearts become calloused and hardened whenever we seek first the things of this world. When we seek first the things of this world, we have to play by the rules of the world. A heart of humility, compassion, love, mercy, and grace doesn’t work in such a world.
We need God to put a new heart of flesh in us, one that beats with the blood of Christ pumping through its ventricles. Our hearts turn to flesh whenever we receive the Spirit of God and seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. A heart of flesh operates on faith and obedience, and with faith and obedience come the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.
Without God performing His surgery on our hearts, we cannot be His people, and He will not be our God. And so what we must do is sign the waiver form that surrenders our rights to our hearts to Him. We must freely give over our hearts to God to let Him do with our hearts as He chooses. We must decide once and for all to let our hearts belong to Him.
Do we imagine that God will mishandle our hearts? Do we imagine that we can handle our hearts better than He can? History, our own personal experience, and especially the word of God tells us that we cannot handle our own hearts better than God can. And the word of God promises that God will handle our hearts perfectly—if we would just hand over our hearts to Him.
Father, You are the perfect Surgeon. Your knowledge is complete, and Your hand is steady and unwavering. Change my heart, oh God! I surrender it to You. Make it new and alive, coursing and pumping with the blood of Christ and powerful with the Spirit of Christ. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
