Ezekiel 36:26-27 “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.”

The phrase, “heart of stone,” which has been used in various contexts, originates here, as far as I know. It is certainly descriptive! We can be incredibly insensitive toward God sometimes, and that is what this passage is talking about. Man-made religions focus on making people better, but the Bible speaks of transforming us from the inside out. The problem with legalism is that it depends on external rules, when God’s plan is to put the Holy Spirit in us to motivate us to follow what He has laid out for us. It’s not that rules have no place, or that we have no part in the process of our sanctification; Paul talked about that at length in Romans. However, when we focus on the rules instead of the God who gave them to us, we end up refusing the very Holy Spirit who can enable us to keep them. That is the message of Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Jesus called the transformation we need being born again, when He was talking with Nicodemus, a man very familiar with the written law. (John 3) We are called to be open to the Holy Spirit and neither grieve (Ephesians 4:30) nor quench (1 Thessalonians 5:19) Him. If we will do that, then our hearts will be soft and tender toward God, able to hear Him and respond with joyful obedience.

I may be a pastor, but in this area I am on totally equal footing with everyone else. I can no more be holy in my own strength than I could perform brain surgery blindfolded! We have clear instructions to “Be holy, because I am holy,” (1 Peter 1:15-16) so I am never to take it lightly, but the motivation and the power are from God by His Spirit. I am to remember and teach that God never asks anything of us that He doesn’t make possible, but most of what He asks of us is quite impossible to us without His help.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Help me be fully yielded to You at all times, as a carrier of Your presence by Your Spirit, so that my own life may be pleasing to You and many be brought to repentance and faith, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!