A heart of flesh

 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh    Ezekiel 36:26

Ezekiel was speaking to the Israelites who had been taken into captivity and exile in Babylon because of their hard and stubborn hearts.  Time and again they had been warned that unless they repented and turned away from their idolatry, they would be exiled.  They had refused to listen and now far from home Ezekiel seeks to bring them God’s comfort.

The heart of course does not refer to the organ that pumps blood around the body but the very centre or wellspring (Proverbs 4:23) of our being. Our heart represents our mind, will and emotions.  It is how we think, feel and therefore how we act and speak.

‘For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks’ Matthew 12:34

Before we became Christians we too had hearts of stone, unresposnisve to God. When we turned from our sins to God, He promises to give us a new, soft heart of flesh.  So often life has hurt and disappointed us, people have been unkind and rejected us and we have sought to protect ourselves from further hurt, disappointment and rejection by putting a shield around our hearts. This causes us to have a hard shell around our heart that no one can penetrate.  God wants us to have soft, open hearts to both himself and others. 

This can be very hard for us.  Hurts go deep and are very painful but we need to let the Holy Spirit bring forgiveness to others and healing to our lives. He will gently soak off the hard shell of our hearts with his love.  He wants to take away the hard heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh that is soft and responsive to him. 

It takes time to learn to trust God to shield our hearts from further hurt and rejection and not do it ourselves.  Soft, open hearts feel very vulnerable but God will teach us how to keep our hearts soft and pliable and trust him to protect us.  As we allow God to penetrate the deeper areas of our hearts where hurts, disappointments and rejection lie buried, he will bring light and healing to these places. 

God will never hurt us, he loves us too much.  Let us trust him with our hearts.