“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them”. – Ezekiel 36: 26 & 27
Nothing ruins a Saturday like cleaning out the garage. In fact, I can’t think of a time when it was a pleasant experience. First of all, if you’re bothering to clean it that must mean it is not neat. Second of all, most garages, at least in my experience, are organized to the point that if you can find whatever you’re after, without it being a threat to your life, then it’s not yet time to clean. In short, if you can get to whatever you need, and not die, it’s not time to clean; as long as the garage meets this criteria…..no need to clean. So, that being said, when it finally gets life threating in there, cleaning is no fun because there is A LOT to clean.
I feel like people think Jesus is going to clean up their lives, like we clean our garages. As if he is going to go into their heart and gradually remove one thing at a time. Once complete, he will then sweep the whole thing out, and put back only what is needed. Like most of us, with our own garages, this process of cleaning is so daunting, we usually wait until our situation becomes life threating before we bother. Only, it’s hard to pray when your $15,000 dollar Honda is summersaulting into oncoming traffic, or when you’re gasping for your next breath amiss a sudden heart attack, and this is just speaking in the natural. Some folks are long dead, before they are dead. “Well what in the world does that mean?” ……… I am glad you asked. It means that you remain in sin so long, the heart becomes callas and you give up hope. Jesus doesn’t give up hope on you……you give up hope on him. The scripture says that “For the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23) Not a whole lot of grey area in that verse. The garage must be clean, and praise God that Jesus doesn’t clean out our lives, like we our garages. He changes one thing, which changes everything.
He changes our hearts……if we let him. By altering this one thing, it alters everything. Your desires define you; they drive you; where you go, what you want, what you choose. “Out of it (the heart) are all the issues of life.” (Proverbs 4:23) He takes the old heart and gives you a brand new one. In one simple step your whole life is forever altered. Your life can be an absolute mess, until you say “there is no WAY God can fix this.” But he can, he will, just let him. This is not an impossible task, or a long drawn out process. It is an immediate, instantaneous, emancipation. Conversion and Sanctification. If you humble your pride and repent of you sins committed he will forgive and make clean, immediately. If you ask for God to take away the old stony heart, that is bent to sin and “prone to wonder” he will, and give you a heart that is Sanctified to him. He will do it, in a moment, if you let him. Now, all the external circumstances are still there. As I once heard, “if your broke before you go to the alter, you are going to be broke when you get up from the alter.” Those things will not change, some things may, but what will change most important is your perspective; your disposition, your heart. He will change one thing, which will change everything……If you let him.
Any Thoughts? I look forward to hearing for you.
