Four passages and a short devotional a day to take you through the whole Bible in one year — right alongside your Spirit Church family.
Real questions from Spirit readers on this passage, answered by our pastors.
Today God announces the transplant the whole Bible has been building toward: 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.
Not a resolution. Not a renovation. A replacement, performed by God, for His name's sake. If you have ever despaired of changing, this is your chapter.
It is not for your sake: the least flattering sentence in Ezekiel is also the most secure. If the transplant depended on your deserving, it could be revoked by your failing. Anchored in God's name, it is as stable as His reputation, which is to say, permanent.
James shows the new heart's first reflexes: joy that can metabolize trials, prayer that asks for wisdom without flinching, receiving every good gift from a Father who does not shift like shadows. Hearts of stone protect themselves. Hearts of flesh can afford to feel, ask, and endure. Yours came with all three capacities installed.