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.

Ezekiel 36:26

Brothers and Sisters, God promises His children so many wonderous things, so I have to wonder, why aren’t more of us living more wonderfully?

May I confess something to you?

I’m convinced that I often miss out on God’s promises because I do not act on them. Somehow, I imagine I’m not the only one.

Take Ezekiel 36:26 for example: God promises that He will remove our hardened hearts and give us new hearts that are better able to love Him and love others.

Now let me preface this next part by stating that God can do anything He wants any time He wants, but it’s been my experience that He doesn’t do anything rashly and that He has incredibly infinite amounts of patience.

With Ezekiel 36 in mind, I posit that the promise would be fulfilled much more quickly if we didn’t wrestle Him to try to keep that heart of stone in place. We could surrender it and – Wha-La! – new heart! Or, we could spend weeks, months, years wrestling God for a new heart with one hand while we try to hold on to our way, our comfort, our prejudices, our position, our preferences, or our grudges with the other.

Sweet friends, I don’t know about you, but I’ve never won a wrestling match with God. I’ve never gotten anything good by ignoring His way and doing things my own way either. Much like Jacob in the days of old, I’ve always come out of a wrestling match with God with a new name, a new understanding of who God says I am and a clearer picture of who He is, and a few times I’ve come out with a limp.

BUT God, well I’m pretty sure God would have brought me to those pieces of truth on an easier path if I hadn’t forced us down the hard road with my own willfulness.

Maybe you’ve had some similar matches, some times in your life when God was holding a beautiful promise out to you and you wrestled with Him instead of accepting it thankfully?

Maybe you tend to take the long, difficult road when God has shown you a much easier way through surrender and obedience?

Dear hearts, there’s no sense denying it. We have all wrestled God over something He was giving freely, haven’t we?

This morning let us look inward at the heart we’re carrying around.

• Is it soft and loving and kind?
• Does it seek God first in all things?
• Does it ache for the well being of all people?
• Does it have a few spots of hardening, of tarnish?
• A few places where we’re holding on to our way, our prejudice, our grudge? A few places we wish God couldn’t see? Won’t let Him into?
• Isn’t it time to surrender those places to the One who promises to make all things new?

This morning, as I often must, I’m offering up my rebel heart to the Father. If you’d like to join me and don’t know what to say, try the verse below. I heard it a few years ago. I’ve found it opens the door for God and I to discuss the areas where I’ve been holding on to things I shouldn’t or holding out on Him to seek my own way. It might just help you too.

Father,

Help me put the renegade to rest
Turn this stone inside me back to flesh
Hold me til my best defenses fall
Watch this rebel heart surrender all

(Rebel Heart, Lauren Daigle)