Heart Replacement
I’ve lived long enough to watch the New Year’s hype crescendo and decrescendo. I’ve watched the weight loss, exercise, and decluttering gurus tout their New Year’s specials online. I’ve watched my best intentions for fitness and organization run aground upon my love of cooking, and baking, and my natural bent toward disorganization. I’ve scolded myself until I slump away in defeat, all the while longing for true change—something deeper than a new exercise program or a plan for decluttering. I want a new heart. I need a heart replacement.
In a dusty corner of the Old Testament lies a scripture passage that points directly to the sort of heart replacement we all need.
Ezekiel 36:26-28 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
According to this scripture, we all need a heart replacement. Each of us needs God to replace our heart of stone with a heart of flesh. This passage implies that we are powerless to manufacture this heart replacement through our strivings. It is God Who does the work. However, we can cultivate a humble and teachable attitude towards Him that invites Him to begin the transformative work within us.
When a humble, teachable spirit rules within me, I find myself fully aware of my needs. Self-exaltation flies away. Any gifts I possess are seen as blessings from His hand, meant to be used in His service rather than personal glory or gratification. I realize any strength at work within me is because of His benevolence. As He uses me in His kingdom, it is only because His lovingkindness is bestowed upon me.
As the Scripture passage alludes, I cannot manufacture this heart change by more striving, and I wonder what steps I can take to cultivate this humble and teachable posture. I have found my first step involves listening: listening to Him as He speaks through Scripture and listening to the thoughts and attitudes arising from my heart; it often sounds like this:
“I’m fine as I am. Why would I need to change or grow?”
“I’m doing better than so-and-so. Her life is a train wreck!”
“I’ve spent my whole life in church. What more could I possibly learn?”
When I hear myself, I am shocked by my own pridefulness. That revelation may be a gut punch to my pride. I am not helping myself grow when I squirm away from the hard truth. I take steps toward growth when I recognize areas of stubbornness--stony places. As I offer Him that stony place He illuminated, He begins His transformative work in that very place.
Though I am powerless to affect the needed heart replacement on my own, I can recognize my need in prayerful humility. I can ask the Great Physician to take up the scalpel and replace my stony heart with a heart of flesh. The deep heart change we seek begins with listening, recognizing, and cultivating-- listening to the truth through scripture, listening to the pride within, recognizing our need, and cultivating a humble teachable heart.
Here we stand, barely a week into the new year. Perhaps it is already littered with the debris of best intentions gone awry. What if this year could be completely different? Not because of a new fitness program, but because of a total heart replacement. What if we asked Him to give us listening ears to hear Him through Scripture? What if we cultivated the humble, teachable heart we need so this year is truly different—different because He has replaced our heart of stone with a heart of flesh?